IBM 


ENGINEERS 

AND 

THEIR    TRIUMPHS  : 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  LOCOMOTIVE— THE  STEAMSHIP- 
BRIDGE  BUILDING— TUNNEL  MAKING. 


BY 


F.     M.     HOLMES, 


AUTHOR   OF    "FOUR    HEROES   OF    INDIA,'      ETC. 


FLEMING    H.    REVELL    COMPANY 

NEW     YORK  CHICAGO  TORONTO 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature. 


ML 


PREFACE. 


WITHOUT  attempting  to  be  exhaustive,  this  little 
book  aims  at  describing  in  a  purely  popular 
and  non-technical  manner  some  of  the  great 
achievements  of  engineers,  more  particularly 
during  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  four  departments  chosen  have  been  selected  not 
in  pursuance  of  any  comprehensive  plan,  but  because 
they  present  some  of  the  more  striking  features  of 
constructional  effort.  The  term  Engineering,  however, 
includes  the  design  and  supervision  of  numerous 
works,  such  as  roads  and  canals,  docks  and  break- 
waters, machinery  and  mining,  as  well  as  steam- 
engines  and  steamships,  bridges  and  tunnels. 

Information,  in  certain  cases,  has  been  gained  at 
first-hand,  and  I  have  to  acknowledge  the  courtesy 
of  the  managers  of  the  Cunard  and  White  Star  Steam- 
ship Companies,  Messrs.  Maudslay,  Sons  &  Field,  and 
others,  in  supplying  various  particulars. 

The  narrative  concerning  Henry  Bell  and  the  steam- 
ship Comet,  and  of  his  connection  with  Fulton,  is  chiefly 


I  J.J.1K5 


VI  PREFACE. 

based  on  a  letter  from  Bell  himself  in  the  Caledonian 
Mercury  in  1816. 

The  statement  that  Mr.  Macgregor  Laird  was  so 
largely  instrumental  in  founding  the  British  and 
American  Steam  Navigation  Company  is  made  on 
the  authority  of  his  daughter,  Miss  Eleanor  Bristow 
Laird.  An  article  on  "The  Genesis  of  the  Steam- 
ship," which  I  wrote  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine, 
brought  a  letter  from  that  lady  in  which  she  declares 
that  her  father  was  the  prime  mover  in  founding  the 
Company.  He  had  had  experience,  in  the  Niger 
Expedition  of  1832-33,  of  the  behaviour  of  steamships 
both  at  sea  and  in  the  river,  and  from  the  date  of  his 
return  to  England  she  asserts  he  advocated  the  estab- 
lishment of  steam  communication  between  England  and 
America,  against  the  active  opposition  of  Dr.  Lardner 
and  others.  "  Macgregor  Laird's  claim  to  the  foremost 
place  amongst  all  those  (not  excepting  Brunei)  who 
worked  for  the  same  object,"  writes  Miss  Laird,  "  was 
clearly  shown  in  a  letter  from  the  late  Mr.  Archibald 
Hamilton  of  17  St.  Helen's  Place,  E.G.,  to  the  editor 
of  the  Shipping  and  Mercantile  Gazette,  in  which 
paper  it  was  published  on  15th  May,  1873." 

It  is  not  a  little  curious  to  note  how,  in  many  of  these 
great  undertakings,  several  minds  seem  to  have  been 
working  to  the  same  end  at  about  the  same  time.  It 
was  so  with  George  Stephenson  and  others  with  regard 
to  the  locomotive,  with  Miller  and  Symington,  Bell 
and  Fulton,  with  regard  to  the  steamship,  with  Laird 
and  Brunei  as  regards  transatlantic  steam  navigation, 
with  Robert  Stephenson  and  William  Fairbairn  as 
regards  the  tubular  bridge. 

This  volume  does  not  seek  to  be  the  special  advocate 
of  any,  or  to  enter  into  any  minute  details,  but  simply 
endeavours  to  gather  up  the  more  salient  features  and 
weave  them  into  a  connected  and  popular  narrative. 

F.  M.  HOLMES. 


CONTENTS. 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    LOCOMOTIVE. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  FIRST  STEPS, 9 

II.    GLANCING   BACKWARDS   AND   STRUGGLING   FORWARDS,     .  19 

III.  FIFTEEN   MILES   AN   HOUR, 28 

IV.  A  MARVEL   OF   MECHANISM, 36 

V.   A   MILE   A   MINUTE, 46 

THE    STORY    OF    THE    STEAMSHIP, 

i.  THE  "COMET"  APPEARS, 53 

II.  TO  THE  NARROW  SEAS, 60 

III.  ON  THE  OPEN  OCEAN, 68 

IV.  THE  OCEAN  RACE, 74 

V.  BEFORE  THE  FURNACE, 85 

FAMOUS    BRIDGES    AND    THEIR    BUILDERS, 

i.  "THE  BRIDGE  BY  THE  EARTHEN  HOUSE,"     .        .        .  101 

II.    A   NEW   IDEA— THE   BRITANNIA  TUBULAR,        .  .  .108 

vii 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

III.  LATTICE  AND   SUSPENSION   BRIDGES,         .  .  .  .119 

IV.  THE   GREATEST   BRIDGE   IN   THE  WORLD,            .           .           .125 
V.   THE   TOWER   BRIDGE, 133 

REMARKABLE    TUNNELS    AND    THEIR 
CONSTRUCTION. 

I.   HOW   BRUNEL   MADE   A   BORING-SHIELD,             .           .           .137 
II.    UNDER   THE   RIVER, 141 

III.  THROUGH   THE  ALPS, 147 

IV.  UNDER   WATER   AGAIN, 153 


UNIVERSITY   J 


ENGINEERS  AND  THEIE  TRIUMPHS, 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  LOCOMOTIVE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FIRST  STEPS. 

I    THINK   I   could   make   a   better   engine   than 
that." 
"  Do  you  ?    Well,  some'ing  's  wanted  ;  hauling 
coal  by  horses  is  very  expensive." 
."Ay,   it    is,   and   I   think    an   engine   could   do   it 
better." 

"  Mr.  Blackett's  second  engine  burst  all  to  pieces ; 
d  'ye  mind  that  ? " 

"  How  came  that  about  ? " 

"  Tommy  Waters,  who  put  it  together,  could  not  make 
it  go,  so  he  got  a  bit  fractious  and  said  she  should  move. 
He  did  some'ing  to  the  safety-valve  and  she  did  begin 
to  work,  but  then  she  burst  all  to  pieces." 
"  Ay,  ay,  but  this  one  is  an  improvement." 
"  It  had  need  be.      Even  the  third  was  a  perfect 
plague." 

9 


10  ENGINEERS    AND   THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

"  What !  you  mean  Mr.  Blackett's  third  engine  ?  " 

"  Ay.  It  used  to  draw  eight  or  nine  truck  loads  at 
about  a  mile  an  hour,  or  a  little  less  ;  but  it  often  got 
cranky  and  stood  still." 

"Stood  still!" 

"  Ay ;  we  thought  she  would  never  stick  to  the  road, 
so  we  had  a  cogged  wheel  to  work  into  a  rack- work  rail 
laid  along  the  track,  and  somehow  she  was  always 
getting  off  the  rack-rail." 

"  And  now  you  find  that  the  engine  is  heavy  enough 
herself  to  grip  the  rail." 

"Ay,  that  was  Will  Hedley 's  notion;  he's  a  viewer 
at  the  colliery.  And  it  is  a  great  improvement.  Why, 
that  third  engine,  I  say,  was  a  perfect  nuisa,nce.  Chaps 
used  to  sing  out  to  the  driver :  '  How  do  you  get  on  ? ' 

" '  Get  on,'  sez  he,  '  I  don't  get  on  ;  I  on'y  get  off ! ' 

"  It  was  always  goin'  wrong,  and  horses  was  always 
having  to  be  got  out  to  drag  it  along." 

"  How  did  Hedley  find  out  that  a  rack-rail  was  not 
needful  ? " 

"Well,  he  had  a  framework  put  upon  wheels  and 
worked  by  windlasses  which  were  geared  to  the  wheels. 
Men  were  put  to  work  these  windlasses  which  set  the 
wheels  going ;  and,  lo  and  behold,  she  moved !  The 
wheels,  though  smooth,  kept  to  the  rails,  though  they 
were  smooth  also,  and  the  framework  went  along  with- 
out slipping.  '  Crikey ! '  says  Hedley, '  no  cogged  wheels, 
no  chains,  no  legs  for  me  !  We  can  do  without  'em  all. 
Smooth  wheels  will  grip  smooth  rails.'  And  he  proved 
it  too  by  several  experiments." 

"  Then  Mr.  Blackett  had  this  engine  built  ? " 

"Ay,  and  it  be,  as  you  say,  a  great  improvement. 
But  that  steam  blowing  off  there,  after  it  have  done  its 
work,  frights  the  horses  on  the  Wylam  Road  ter'ble,  and 
makes  it  a  perfect  nuisance." 

"  Has  nothing  been  done  to  alter  it  ? " 

"Mr.  Blackett  has  given  orders  to  stop  the  engine 
when  any  horses  comes  along,  and  the  men  don't  like 
that  because  it  loses  time.  He  thinks  he  is  going 


FIRST    STEPS.  11 

to  let  the  steam  escape  gradual  like,  by  blowing  it  off 
into  a  cask  first." 

"  Umph  !  very  wasteful." 

"  Oh,  ay ;  it  be  wasteful ;  and  many  a  one  about 
here  sez  of  Mr.  Blackett  that  a  fool  and  his  money  are 
soon  parted." 

"  No,"  said  the  first  speaker,  shaking  his  head  thought- 


GEORGE   STEPHENSON. 


fully,  "  Mr.  Blackett  is  no  fool.  But  I  think  I  could 
build  a  better  engine  than  that." 

The  tone  in  which  these  words  were  uttered  was  not 
boastful,  but  quiefc  and  thoughtful. 

"  You  are  Geordie  Stephenson,  the  engine- wright  of 
the  Killingworth  Collieries,  'beant  you  ? " 

"  Ay ;  and  we  have  to  haul  coal  some  miles  to  the 
Tyne  where  it  can  be  shipped.  So  you  do  away  with 
all  rack- work  rails  and  all  cogged  wheels,  do  you  ? " 


12  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

"  Ay,  ay,  Geordie,  that 's  so  —  smooth  wheels  on 
smooth  rails." 

This  conversation,  imaginary  though  to  some  extent 
it  be,  yet  embodies  some  important  facts.  Jonathan 
Foster,  Mr.  Blackett's  engine -wright,  informed  Mr. 
Samuel  Smiles,  who  mentions  the  circumstance  in  his 
"  Lives  of  the  Engineers,"  that  George  Stephenson 
"  declared  his  conviction  that  a  much  more  effective 
engine  might  be  made,  that  should  work  more  steadily 
and  draw  the  load  more  effectively." 

Geordie  had  studied  the  steam-engine  most  diligently. 
Born  at  Wylam — some  eight  miles  distant  from  New- 
castle, about  thirty  years  previously — he  had  become 
a  fireman  of  a  steam-engine  and  had  been  wont  to  take 
it  to  pieces  in  his  leisure.  He  was  now  thinking  over  the 
subject  of  building  a  locomotive  engine,  and  he  decided 
to  see  what  had  already  been  accomplished.  He  would 
profit  by  the  failures  and  successes  of  others.  So  he  went 
over  to  Wylam  to  see  Mr.  Blackett's  engines,  and  to  Cox- 
lodge  Colliery  to  see  Mr.  Blenkinsop's  from  Leeds ;  and 
here  again  it  is  said,  that  after  watching  the  machine 
haul  sixteen  locomotive  waggons  at  a  speed  of  about 
three  miles  an  hour,  he  expressed  the  opinion  that  "  he 
thought  he  could  make  a  better  engine  than  that,  to 
go  upon  legs." 

A  man  named  Brunton  did  actually  take  out  a  patent 
in  1813  for  doing  this.  The  legs  were  to  work  alter- 
nately, like  a  living  creature's.  The  idea  which  seems 
to  have  troubled  the  early  inventors  of  the  loco- 
motive, was  that  smooth  wheels  would  not  grip  smooth 
rails  to  haul  along  a  load.  And  it  was  Blenkinsop 
of  Leeds  who  took  out  a  patent  in  1811  for  a  rack- 
work  rail  into  which  a  cog-wheel  from  his  engine 
should  work. 

Thus  William  Hedley's  idea  of  trusting  to  the  weight 
of  the  engine  to  grip  the  rails,  and  abolishing  all  the 
toothed  wheels  and  legs  and  rack-work  for  this  purpose 
on  a  fairly  level  rail,  was  the  first  great  step  toward 
making  the  locomotive  a  practicable  success. 


is 


FIKST    STEPS.  15 

The  idea  that  Stephenson  invented  the  locomotive  is 
a  mistake.  But  just  as  James  Watt  improved  the 
crude  steam  pumps  and  engines  he  found  in  existence, 
so  George  Stephenson  of  immortal  memory  developed 
and  made  practicable  the  locomotive.  For,  in  spite  of 
Hedley's  discovery  or  invention,  all  locomotives  were 
partial  failures  until  Stephenson  took  the  matter  in 
hand. 

Nevertheless,  William  Hedley's  "  Puffing  Billy  "  must 
be  regarded  as  one  of  the  first  practicable  railway  engines 
ever  built.  It  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  South  Ken- 
sington Museum,  London.  Patented  in  1813,  it  began 
regular  work  at  Wylam  in  that  year,  and  continued 
in  use  until  1872.  It  was  probably  this  engine  which 
Stephenson  saw  when  he  said  to  Jonathan  Foster  that 
he  could  make  a  better,  and  it  was  no  doubt  the  first 
to  work  by  smooth  wheels  on  smooth  rails.  Altogether 
it  has  been  looked  upon  as  the  "  father "  of  the  enor- 
mous number  of  locomotives  which  have  followed. 

Mr.  Blackett  was  a  friend  of  Richard  Trevithick  ; 
and  among  the  various  inventors  and  improvers  of  the 
locomotive  engine  Richard  Trevithick,  a  tin- miner  in 
Cornwall,  must  have  a  high  place. 

Trevithick  was  a  pupil  of  Murdock,  who  was  assistant 
of  James  Watt.  Murdock  had  made  a  model  success- 
fully of  a  locomotive  engine  at  Redruth.  Others  also 
had  attempted  the  same  thing.  Savery  had  suggested 
something  of  the  kind  ;  Cugnot,  a  French  engineer, 
built  one  in  Paris  about  1763;  Oliver  Evans,  an 
American,  made  a  steam  carriage  in  1772;  William 
Symington,  who  did  so  much  for  the  steam-boat,  con- 
structed a  model  of  one  in  1784.  So  that  many  minds 
had  been  at  work  on  the  problem. 

But  Richard  Trevithick  was  really  the  first  English- 
man who  used  a  steam-engine  on  a  railway.  He  had 
not  much  money  and  he  persuaded  his  cousin,  Andrew 
Vivian,  to  join  him  in  the  enterprise.  In  1802  they 
took  out  a  patent  for  a  steam-engine  to  propel  car- 
riages. 


16  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

But  before  this  he  had  made  a  locomotive  to  travel 
along  roads,  and  on  Christmas  Eve,  1801,  the  wonder- 
ful sight  could  have  been  seen  of  this  machine  carrying 
passengers  for  the  first  time.  It  is  indeed  believed  to 
have  been  the  first  occasion  on  which  passengers  were 
conveyed  by  the  agency  of  steam — the  pioneer  indeed 
of  a  mighty  traffic. 

The  machine  was  taken  to  London  and  exhibited  in 
certain  streets,  and  at  length,  in  1808,  it  was  shown  on 
ground  where  now,  curiously  enough,  the  Euston  Station 
of  the  London  and  North -Western  Railway  stands. 
Did  any  prevision  of  the  extraordinary  success  of  the 
locomotive  flash  across  the  engineer's  brain?  Before 
the  infant  century  had  run  its  course  what  wonder- 
ful developments  of  the  strange  new  machine  were  to 
be  seen  on  that  very  spot ! 

Much  interest  was  aroused  by  the  exhibition  of  this 
machine,  and  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  a  fellow  Cornish- 
man,  is  reported  to  have  written  to  a  friend — "  I  shall 
soon  hope  to  hear  that  the  roads  of  England  are  the 
haunts  of  Captain  Trevithick's  dragons — a  character- 
istic name." 

His  letter  tends  to  show  that  the  idea  then  was  that 
the  engine  should  run  on  the  public  roads,  and  not  on  a 
specially  prepared  track  like  a  railway.  Had  not  this 
idea  been  modified,  and  the  principle  of  a  railroad 
adopted,  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the  extra- 
ordinary development  of  the  locomotive  would  not  have 
followed. 

Trevithick's  first  engine  appears  to  have  burst.  At 
all  events,  in  the  year  1803  or  1804,  he  built,  and  began 
to  run,  a  locomotive  on  a  horse  tramway  in  South 
Wales.  It  appears  that  he  had  been  employed  to 
build  a  forge-engine  here,  and  thus  the  opportunity 
was  presented  for  the  trial  of  a  machine  to  haul  along 
minerals.  This,  it  is  believed,  was  the  first  railway 
locomotive,  and  its  builder  was  Richard  Trevithick. 

The  trial,  however,  was  not  very  successful.  Trevi- 
thick's engine  was  too  heavy  for  the  tramway  on  which 


FIRST    STEPS.  17 

it  ran,  and  the  proprietors  were  not  prepared  to  put 
down  a  stronger  road.  Furthermore,  it  once  alarmed 
the  good  folk,  unused  then  to  railway  accidents,  by 
actually  running  off  its  rail,  though  only  travelling  at 
about  four  or  five  miles  an  hour.  It  had  to  be  igno- 
niiniously  brought  home  by  horses.  That  settled  the 
matter.  It  became  a  pumping  engine,  and  as  such 
answered  very  well. 

In  this  locomotive,  however,  it  should  be  noted  Trevi- 
thick  employed  a  device  which,  a  quarter  of  a  century 
later,  Stephenson  made  so  valuable  that  we  might  call 
it  the  very  life-blood  of  the  Locomotive.  We  mean  the 
device  of  turning  the  waste  steam  into  the  funnel  (after 
it  has  done  its  work  by  driving  the  piston),  and  thus 
forcing  a  furnace  draught  and  increasing  the  fire. 
Stephenson,  however,  sent  the  steam  through  a  small 
nozzled  pipe  which  made  of  it  a  veritable  steam-blast, 
while  Trevithick,  apparently,  simply  discharged  the 
steam  into  the  chimney. 

Disgusted  it  would  seem  by  the  failure,  the  inventor 
turned  his  attention  to  other  things.  Trevithick  appears 
to  have  lingered  on  the  very  brink  of  success,  and  then 
turned  aside.  Another  effort  and  he  might  have 
burst  the  barrier.  But  it  was  not  to  be  ;  though  if  any 
one  man  deserve  the  title,  Inventor  of  the  Locomo- 
tive, that  man  is  the  Cornish  genius  Trevithick. 
Readers  who  may  desire  fuller  information  of  Trevi- 
thick and  his  inventions  will  find  it  in  his  "  Life  "  by 
Francis  Trevithick,  C.E.,  published  in  1872. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  Stephenson  found 
the  imaginary  hindrance  that  smooth  wheels  would  not 
grip  smooth  rails,  cleared  away  for  him  by  Hedley's 
experiment,  whereas  Trevithick  had  to  contend  against 
this  difficulty.  He  strove  to  conquer  it  by  roughing 
the  circumference  of  his  wheels  by  projecting  bolts,  so 
that  they  might  grip  in  that  way.  That  is,  his  patent 
provided  for  it,  if  he  did  not  actually  carry  out  the 
plan. 

It  is  very  significant  that  this  imaginary  fear  should 

B 


18  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

have  hindered  the  development  of  the  locomotive. 
The  idea  seems  to  have  prevailed  that,  no  matter  how 
powerful  the  engine,  it  could  not  haul  along  very 
heavy  loads  unless  special  provision  were  made  for 
its  "bite"  or  grip  of  the  rails.  Another  difficulty 
with  which  Trevithick  had  to  contend  was  one  of  cost. 
It  is  said  that  one  of  his  experiments  failed  in  London 
for  that  reason.  This  was  apparently  the  locomotive 
for  roads,  as  distinct  from  the  locomotive  for  rails.  A 
machine  may  be  an  academic  triumph,  but  the  question 
of  cost  must  be  met  if  the  machine  is  to  become  a 
commercial  and  industrial  success. 

Mr.  Blenkinsop  of  Leeds  then  took  out  his  patent  in 
1811  for  a  rack-work  rail  and  cogged  wheel;  but 
before  this  Mr.  Blackett  of  Wylam  had  obtained  a 
plan  of  Trevithick's  engine  and  had  one  constructed. 
He  had  met  Trevithick  at  London,  and  it  was  as  early 
as  1804  that  he  obtained  the  plan.  The  engines,  there- 
fore, of  Mr.  Blackett  which  Stephenson  saw,  came,  so  to 
speak,  in  direct  line  from  Trevithick,  except  that  Mr. 
Blackett's  second  engine  was  a  combination  of  Blenkin- 
sop's  and  Trevithick's. 

Some  progress  was  made,  but  when  on  that  memor- 
able day  George  Stephenson,  the  engine-wright  of  Kil- 
lingworth,  said,  "  I  think  I  could  build  a  better  engine 
than  that,"  no  very  effective  or  economical  working 
locomotive  was  in  existence. 

Back  therefore  went  George  Stephenson  to  his  home. 
He  had  seen  what  others  had  done,  and  with  his  know- 
ledge of  machinery  and  his  love  for  engine  work  he 
would  now  try  what  he  could  do. 

Would  he  succeed  ? 


GLANCING  BACKWARDS  AND  STRUGGLING  FORWARDS.    1 9 

CHAPTER  II. 

GLANCING  BACKWARDS  AND  STRUGGLING  FORWARDS. 


M 


Y  lord,  will  you  spend  the  money  to  build  a 
Travelling  Engine  ? " 

"  Why  ?  what  would  it  do  ?  " 
"Haul  coals  to  the  Tyne,  my  lord.     The 
present  system  of  hauling  by  horses  is  very  costly." 

"  It  is.  But  how  would  you  manage  it  by  a  Travel- 
ling Engine  ? "  Thereupon  George  Stephenson  the 
engine-wright  proceeded  to  explain. 

In  some  such  manner  as  this  we  can  imagine  that 
Stephenson  opened  up  the  subject  to  Lord  Ravens- 
worth,  the  chief  partner  in  the  Killingworth  Colliery  ; 
and  he  won  his  lordship  over. 

Stephenson  had  already  improved  the  colliery 
engines,  and  Lord  Ravens  worth  had  formed  a  high 
opinion  of  his  abilities.  So  after  consideration  he  gave 
the  required  consent. 

Now,  let  us  endeavour  to  imagine  the  position.  The 
steam  engine,  of  which  the  locomotive  is  one  form, 
had  been  invented  years  before.  The  Marquis  of 
Worcester  made  something  of  a  steam  engine  which 
apparently  was  working  at  Vauxhall,  South-west 
London,  in  1656.  It  is  said  that  he  raised  water  forty 
feet,  and  by  this  we  may  infer  that  his  apparatus  was 
a  steam-pump.  He  describes  it  in  his  work  "  Century 
of  Inventions,"  about  1655,  and  he  is  generally  accredited 
with  being  the  inventor  of  the  steam  engine.  It  was, 
however,  a  very  primitive  affair,  the  boiler  being  the 
same  vessel  as  that  in  which  the  steam  accomplished 
its  work. 

Captain  Savery  took  the  next  step.  He  was  the 
first  to  obtain  a  patent  for  applying  steam  power  to 
machinery.  This  was  in  1698,  and  he  used  a  boiler 
distinct  from  the  vessel  where  the  steam  was  to  exert 


20  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

its  power.     Savery's  engines  appear  to  have  been  used 
to  drain  mines. 

His  engines  acted  in  this  way — the  steam  was 
condensed  in  a  vessel  and  produced  a  vacuum  which 
raised  the  water;  then  the  steam  pressing  upon  it 
raised  it  further  in  another  receptacle. 

An  obvious  improvement  was  the  introduction  of  the 
piston.  This  was  Papin's  idea,  and  he  used  it  first  in 
1690.  Six  years  later  an  engine  was  constructed  by 
Savery,  Newcomen  (a  Devonshire  man),  and  Cawley, 
in  which  the  "beam"  was  introduced,  and  also  the 
ideas  of  a  distinct  boiler  separate  from  a  cylinder  in 
which  worked  a  piston.  This  machine  was  in  operation 
for  about  seventy  years.  The  beam  worked  on  an  axle 
in  its  centre — something  like  a  child's  "  see-saw,"  and 
one  end  being  attached  to  the  piston  moving  in  the 
cylinder,  it  was  worked  up  and  down,  the  other  end  of 
the  beam  being  fastened  to  the  pump-rod,  which  was 
thus  alternately  raised  and  depressed. 

The  upward  movement  of  the  piston  having  been 
effected  by  a  rush  of  steam  from  the  boiler  upon  its 
head,  the  steam  was  cut  otf  and  cold  water  run  in  upon 
it  from  a  cistern.  The  steam  was  thus  condensed  by 
the  water  and  a  vacuum  caused,  and  the  piston  was 
pressed  down  by  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere — of 
course  dragging  down  its  end  of  the  beam,  and  raising 
the  pump  rod.  The  steam  was  then  turned  on  again 
and  pushed  up  the  piston,  and  consequently  the  end 
of  the  beam  also.  Thus  the  engine  continued  to  work, 
the  turning  of  the  cocks  to  admit  steam  and  water 
being  performed  by  an  attendant.  The  engine  was, 
however,  made  self-acting  in  this  respect,  and  Smeaton 
improved  this  form  of  engine  greatly.  The  beam  is 
still  used  in  engines  for  pumping. 

Nevertheless,  improved  though  it  became,  it  was  still 
clumsy  and  almost  impracticable.  It  was  the  genius  of 
James  Watt  which  changed  it  from  a  slow,  awkward, 
cumbrous  affair  into  a  most  powerful,  practicable,  and 
useful  machine. 


GLANCING  BACKWARDS  AND  STRUGGLING  FORWARDS.    2 1 

His  great  improvements  briefly  were  these  :  he  con- 
densed the  steam  in  a  separate  vessel  from  the  cylinder, 
and  thus  avoided  cooling  it  and  the  consequent  loss  of 
steam  power  ;  secondly,  he  used  the  steam  to  push  back 
the  piston  as  well  as  to  push  it  forward  (this  is  called 
the  "  double-acting  engine,"  and  is  now  always  used) ; 
thirdly,  he  introduced  the  principle  of  using  the  steam 


JAMES    WATT. 


expansively,  causing  economy  in  working  ;  and  fourthly, 
he  enabled  a  change  to  be  made  of  the  up  and  down 
motion  of  the  piston  into  a  circular  motion  by  the  intro- 
duction of  the  crank. 

The  use  of  the  steam  expansively  is  to  stop  its  rush 
to  the  cylinder  when  the  piston  has  only  partially 
accomplished  its  stroke,  leaving  the  remainder  of  the 


22  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

stroke  to  be  driven  by  the  expansion  of  the  steam. 
In  early  engines  the  steam  was  admitted  by  conical 
valves,  worked  by  a  rod  from  the  beam.  Murdock, 
we  may  add  in  parenthesis,  is  believed  to  have  in- 
vented the  slide-valve  which  carne  into  use  as  loco- 
motives were  introduced,  and  of  which  there  are  now 
numerous  forms.  The  valve  is  usually  worked  by  an 
"  eccentric  "  rod  on  the  shaft  of  the  engine. 

Watt  was  the  author  of  many  other  inventions  and 
improvements  of  the  steam  engine.  Indeed,  although 
Savery  and  Newcomen  and  others  are  entitled  to  great 
praise,  it  was  Watt  who  gave  it  life,  so  to  speak,  and 
made  it,  in  principle  and  essence,  very  much  that  which 
we  now  possess.  There  have,  indeed,  been  improve- 
ments as  to  the  boiler,  as  to  expansive  working,  and 
in  various  details,  since  his  day ;  but,  apart  from  the 
distinctive  forms  of  the  locomotive  and  the  marine 
engine,  the  machine  as  a  whole  is  in  principle  much  as 
Watt  left  it. 

The  centre  of  all  things  in  a  steam  engine  is  usually 
the  cylinder.  Here  the  piston  is  moved  backward  and 
forward,  and  thence  gives  motion  as  required  to  other 
parts  of  the  machine. 

The  cylinder  is  in  fact  an  air-tight,  round  box,  fitted 
with  a  close-fitting,  round  plate  of  metal,  to  which  is 
fixed  the  piston-rod.  Now,  it  must  be  obvious  that  if 
the  steam  be  admitted  at  one  end  of  the  cylinder  it 
will,  as  it  rushes  in,  push  the  metal  plate  and  the  piston 
outward,  and  if  this  steam  be  cut  off,  and  the  steam 
admitted  to  the  other  end  of  the  cylinder,  it  will  push 
the  metal  plate  and  piston  back  again. 

But  what  is  to  be  done  with  the  steam  after  it  has 
accomplished  its  work  ?  It  may  be  permitted  to  spurt 
out  into  the  air,  or  into  a  separate  vessel,  where  it  may 
be  condensed.  In  the  locomotive,  under  Stephenson's 
able  handling,  this  escape  of  steam  was  created  into 
a  steam-blast  in  the  chimney  to  stimulate  the  fire.  In 
compound  and  triple- expansion  engines  the  steam  is 
used  —  or  expanded,  it  is  called  —  in  two  or  three 


GLANCING  BACKWARDS  AND  STRUGGLING  FORWARDS.    23 

cylinders  respectively.     When  steam  is  condensed,  it 
may  be  returned  to  the  boiler  as  water. 

It  was  the  repairing  of  a  Newcomen  engine  that 
seems  to  have  started  Watt  on  his  inventions  and 
improvements  of  the  steam  engine.  He  was  then 
a  mathematical  instrument  maker  at  Glasgow.  As 
a  boy  he  had  suffered  from  poor  health,  but  had 
been  very  observant  and  studious ;  and  it  is  said 
that  his  aunt  chided  him  on  one  occasion  for  wasting 
time  in  playing  with  her  tea-kettle.  He  would  watch 
the  steam  jetting  from  its  spout,  and  would  count  the 
water-drops  into  which  the  steam  would  condense  when 
he  held  a  cup  over  the  white  cloud. 

Delicate  though  he  was  in  health,  he  studied  much, 
and  came,  indeed,  to  make  many  other  articles  besides 
mathematical  instruments.  When,  therefore,  the  New- 
comen engine  needed  repair,  it  was  not  unnatural  that 
it  should  be  brought  to  him.  It  appears  to  have  been 
a  working  model  used  at  Glasgow  University.  He 
soon  repaired  the  machine  ;  but,  in  examining  it,  he 
became  possessed  with  the  idea  that  it  was  very 
defective,  and  he  pondered  long  over  the  problem — 
How  it  might  be  improved.  What  was  wanting  in 
it  ?  How  could  the  steam  be  condensed  without  cool- 
ing the  cylinder  ? 

Suddenly,  one  day,  so  the  story  goes,  the  idea  struck 
him,  when  loitering  across  the  common  with  bent  brows, 
that  if  steam  were  elastic,  it  would  spurt  into  any 
vessel  empty  of  air.  Impatiently,  he  hastened  home 
to  try  the  experiment.  He  connected  the  cylinder 
of  an  engine  with  a  separate  vessel,  in  which  the  air 
was  exhausted,  and  found  that  his  idea  was  correct ; 
the  steam  did  rush  into  it.  Consequently  the  steam 
could  be  condensed  in  a  separate  vessel,  and  the  heat 
of  the  cylinder  maintained  and  the  loss  of  power 
prevented.  This  invention  seems  simple  enough  ;  yet 
it  increased  the  power  of  an  engine  threefold,  and 
is  at  the  root  of  Watt's  fame.  We  must  remember 
that  the  inventions  which  in  process  of  time  may 


24  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

appear  the  simplest  and  the  most  commonplace,  may  be 
the  most  difficult  to  originate.  And  it  may  fairly 
be  urged — If  it  were  so  very  simple,  and  so  very 
obvious,  why  was  it  not  invented  before  ?  The  sup- 
position is  that  in  those  days  it  was  not  so  simple. 
It  is  possible  that  the  great  elasticity  of  steam  was 
not  sufficiently  understood.  In  any  case,  the  discovery 
and  its  application  are  regarded  as  his  greatest  inven- 
tion. 

Yet  ten  years  elapsed  before  he  constructed  a  real 
working  steam  engine,  and  so  great  we  may  suppose 
were  the  difficulties  he  encountered,  including  poorness 
of  health,  that  once  he  is  reported  to  have  exclaimed  : 
"  Of  all  things  in  the  world,  there  is  nothing  so  foolish 
as  inventing." 

But  a  brilliant  triumph  succeeded.  Eventually  Watt 
became  partner  with  Mr.  Matthew  Boulton,  and  the 
firm  of  Boulton  &  Watt  manufactured  the  engine  at 
Soho  Ironworks,  Birmingham.  Mining  proprietors 
soon  discovered  the  value  of  the  new  machine,  and 
Newcomen's  engine  was  superseded  for  pumping. 

Watt  continued  to  improve  the  machine,  and  to- 
gether with  Boulton  also  greatly  improved  the  work- 
manship of  constructing  engines  and  machinery.  In 
a  patent  taken  out  in  1784,  he  "described  a  steam 
locomotive  "  ;  but  for  some  reason  he  did  not  prosecute 
the  idea.  It  is  possible  that  the  notion  of  building  a 
special  road  for  it  to  run  upon  did  not  occur  to  him,  or 
appear  a  very  practicable. 

His  work  was  done,  and  it  was  a  great  work ;  but  it 
was  left  for  others  to  develop  the  steam  engine  into 
forms  for  hauling  carriages  on  land  or  propelling  ships 
upon  the  sea.  Trevithick,  Stephenson,  and  others  did 
the  one;  Symington,  Bell,  and  others  did  the  second. 
Watt  died  in  1819,  and  though  so  delicate  in  youth,  he 
lived  to  his  eighty-fourth  year. 

The  steam  engine,  therefore,  as  Watt  left  it,  was 
practically  as  Stephenson  came  to  know  it.  He  would 
be  acquainted  with  it  chiefly  as  a  pumping  machine. 


GLANCING  BACKWARDS  AND  STRUGGLING  FORWARDS.    25 

But  he  saw  what  others  had  done  to  adopt  it  as  a  loco- 
motive, and  he  now  set  to  work. 

Stephenson's  first  engine  did  not  differ  very  materi- 
ally from  some  of  those  which  had  preceded  it.  He 
was,  so  to  speak,  feeling  his  way.  The  machine  had 
a  round,  wrought-iron  boiler,  eight  feet  long,  with  two 
upright  cylinders  placed  on  the  top  of  it.  At  the  end 
of  the  pistons  from  the  cylinders  were  cross-rods  con- 
nected with  cogged  wheels  below  by  other  rods.  These 
cogged  wheels  gave  motion  to  the  wheels  running  on 
the  rails  by  cogs  not  very  far  from  the  axles.  Stephen- 
son  abandoned  the  cogged  rail,  and  adopted  smooth 
wheels  and  smooth  rails ;  but  he  did  not  connect  the 
driving-wheel  direct  with  the  piston,  the  intervening 
cogged  wheels  being  thought  necessary  to  unite  the 
power  of  the  two  cylinders. 

In  adopting  the  principle  of  smooth  wheels  on  smooth 
rails,  it  is  said  that  Stephenson  proved  by  experiment 
that  the  arrangement  would  work  satisfactorily.  Mr. 
Smiles  writes  that  Robert  Stephenson  informed  him, 
"That  his  father  caused  a  number  of  workmen  to 
mount  upon  the  wheels  of  a  waggon  moderately 
loaded,  and  throw  their  entire  weight  upon  the 
spokes  on  one  side,  when  he  found  that  the  waggon 
could  thus  be  easily  propelled  forward  without  the 
wheels  slipping.  This,  together  with  other  experi- 
ments, satisfied  him  of  the  expediency  of  adopting 
smooth  wheels  on  his  engine,  and  it  was  so  finished 
accordingly."  Thus  it  may  be  said  that  this  obstacle — 
imaginary  though  it  largely  proved  to  be — was  cleared 
away  from  Stephenson's  first  engine. 

Ten  months  were  occupied  in  building  the  machine, 
and  at  last  came  the  day  of  its  trial.  This  was  the 
25th  of  July,  1814.  Would  it  work  ? 

Jolting  and  jerking  along,  it  did  work,  hauling  eight 
carriages  at  a  speed  of  about  four  or  six  miles  an  hour 
— as  fast  as  a  brisk  man  could  walk.  Then  came  the 
question — Would  it  prove  more  economical  than  horse- 
power ? 


26  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

Calculations  therefore  were  made,  and  after  a  time  it 
was  found  that  "  Blucher "  as  the  engine  was  called, 
though  we  believe  its  real  name  was  "  My  Lord,"  was 
about  as  expensive  as  horse-power. 

The  locomotive  needed  something  more,  some  magic 
touch  to  render  it  less  clumsy  and  more  effective. 
What  was  it  ? 

Then  came  the  first  great  practicable  improvement 
after  the  smooth  wheels  on  smooth  rails.  It  was  the 
steam-blast  in  the  funnel,  by  which  the  draught  in  the 
furnace  was  greatly  increased.  Indeed,  the  faster  the 
engine  ran  the  more  furiously  the  fire  would  burn,  the 
more  rapid  would  be  the  production  of  steam,  and  the 
greater  the  power  of  the  engine. 

At  first  Stephenson  had  allowed  his  waste  steam  from 
the  cylinders  to  blow  off  into  the  air.  So  great  was  the 
nuisance  caused  by  this  arrangement  that  a  law-suit 
was  threatened  if  it  were  not  abated. 

What  was  to  be  done  with  that  troublesome  waste 
steam  ?  Now,  whether  Stephenson  originated  the  idea 
or  adapted  what  Trevithick  had  done,  we  cannot  say, 
but  at  all  events  he  achieved  the  object,  wherever  he 
gained  the  idea.  He  turned  his  exhaust  steam  through 
a  pipe  into  the  funnel,  and  at  a  stroke  increased  the 
power  of  his  engine  two-fold. 

But  that  expedient  was  not  alone.  Stephenson  had 
watched  the  working  of  "  Blucher "  to  some  purpose, 
and  he  decided  to  build  another  engine  with  improve- 
ments. 

The  cumbersome  cog-wheels  must  go ;  they  compli- 
cated the  machine  terribly,  and  prevented  its  practica- 
bility. Therefore  in  his  second  engine  he  introduced 
direct  connection  between  the  pistons  and  the  wheels. 
There  were  a  couple  of  upright  cylinders  as  before,  with 
cross-rods  attached  to  the  piston-ends,  and  connecting 
rods  from  the  end  of  each  cross-rod,  reaching  down  to 
the  wheels.  But  to  overcome  the  difficulty  of  one 
wheel  being  at  some  time  higher  than  the  other  on  the 
poorly  constructed  railway  of  that  period,  a  joint  was 


GLANCING  BACKWARDS  AND  STRUGGLING  FORWARDS.     27 

introduced  in  the  cross-rod,,  so  that  if,  perchance,  the 
two  wheels  should  not  be  always  on  exactly  the  same 
level,  no  undue  strain  should  be  placed  on  the  cross-rod. 
Furthermore,  the  two  pairs  of  wheels  were  combined 
first  by  a  chain,  but  afterwards  by  connecting  rods. 
This  may  be  called  the  locomotive  of  1815,  the  year  in 
which  the  patent  was  taken  out. 

The    engine   accomplished   its  work    more   satisfac- 


EDWARU   PEASE. 


torily  than  before,  and  was  placed  daily  on  the  rails  to 
haul  coal  from  the  mine  to  the  shipping  point.  But 
still  its  economy  over  horse-power  was  not  so  great  as 
to  cause  its  wide  adoption.  And  it  was  still  little 
better,  if  anything,  than  a  mere  coal  haul. 

Nevertheless  Stephenson  persevered.  He  was  ap- 
pointed engineer  to  the  Stockton  and  Darlington 
Railway  —  an  enterprise  largely  promoted  by  Mr. 


28  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

Edward  Pease.  It  was  opened  on  the  27th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1825,  and  a  local  paper  writes  as  follows : — 

"  The  signal  being  given,  the  engine  started  off  with 
this  immense  train  of  carriages,  and  such  was  its 
velocity,  that  in  some  parts  the  speed  was  frequently 
12  miles  an  hour;  and  at  that  time  the  number  of 
passengers  was  counted  to  be  450,  which,  together  with 
the  coals,  merchandise,  and  carriages,  would  amount  to 
near  90  tons.  The  engine,  with  its  load,  arrived  at 
Darlington,  a  distance  of  8f  miles,  in  65  minutes.  The 
6  waggons  loaded  with  coals,  intended  for  Darlington, 
were  then  left  behind ;  and  obtaining  a  fresh  supply  of 
water,  and  arranging  the  procession  to  accommodate  a 
band  of  music  and  numerous  passengers  from  Darling- 
ton, the  engine  set  off  again,  and  arrived  at  Stockton 
in  3  hours  and  7  minutes,  including  stoppages,  the 
distance  being  nearly  12  miles." 

Stephenson  became  a  partner  in  a  business  for  con- 
structing locomotives  at  Newcastle,  and  three  engines 
were  made  for  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway. 
Nevertheless  they  appear  to  have  been  used  chiefly  if 
not  almost  entirely  for  hauling  coal ;  for  the  passenger- 
coach  called  the  Experiment  was  hauled  by  a  horse, 
and  the  journey  occupied  about  two  hours. 

The  locomotive  was  not  even  yet  a  brilliant  success 
over  horse -power.  What  was  to  be  the  next  step  ? 


CHAPTER  III. 

FIFTEEN  MILES  AN   HOUR. 

FIVE    hundred    pounds   for  the   best    locomotive 
engine ! 
So  ran  the  announcement  one  day  in  the  year 
1829.     The  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway 
was  nearly  completed,  but  yet  the  directors  had  not 


FIFTEEN    MILES    AN    HOUR.  29 

fully  decided  what  power  they  would  employ  ibo  haul 
along  their  waggons. 

Horse-power  had  at  length  been  finally  abandoned, 
and  numbers  of  schemes  had  been  poured  in  upon  the 
managers.  But  the  contest  seemed  at  last  to  resolve 
itself  chiefly  into  a  rivalry  between  fixed  and  locomotive 
engines.  Principally,  if  not  entirely,  swayed  however  by 
the  arguments  of  George  Stephenson,  the  directors 
yielded  to  the  hint  of  a  Mr.  Harrison,  and  offered  a 
£500  prize. 

The  engine  was  to  satisfy  certain  conditions.  Its 
weight  was  not  to  be  above  six  tons ;  it  was  to  burn  its 
own  smoke,  haul  twenty  tons  at  a  rate  of  ten  miles  an 
hour,  be  furnished  with  two  safety  valves,  rest  on 
springs  and  on  six  wheels,  while  its  steam  pressure 
must  not  be  more  than  fifty  Ibs.  to  the  square  inch. 
The  cost  was  not  to  exceed  £550. 

Stephenson,  who  was  the  engineer  of  the  Railway, 
decided  to  compete.  He  was  now  in  a  very  different 
position  from  that  which  he  occupied  when  he  built 
his  second  locomotive  in  1815.  His  appointment  as 
engineer  to  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway  had 
greatly  aided  his  advancement,  and  when  it  was  decided 
to  build  a  railway  between  the  two  busy  cities  of 
Manchester  and  Liverpool  it  was  not  unnatural  that  he 
should  take  part  in  the  undertaking. 

The  idea  of  constructing  rail,  or  tram  ways,  was  not 
new.  Railways  of  some  kind  were  used  in  England 
about  two  hundred  years  before,  that  is,  about  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Thus  Roger 
North  writes : — "  The  manner  of  the  carriage  is  by 
laying  rails  of  timber  from  the  colliery  to  the  river, 
exactly  straight  and  parallel ;  and  bulky  carts  are 
made  with  four  rollers  fitting  those  rails,  whereby  the 
carriage  is  so  easy  that  one  horse  will  draw  down  four 
or  five  chaldron  of  coals,  and  is  an  immense  benefit  to 
the  coal  merchants." 

It  is  said  that  the  word  tramway  is  derived  from 
tram,  which  was  wont  to  mean  a  beam  of  timber  and 


30  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

also  a  waggon.  In  any  case,  such  rough  ways  were 
introduced  in  mining  districts,  for,  as  may  be  readily 
believed,  one  horse  could  draw  twenty  times  the  load 
upon  them  that  it  could  on  an  ordinary  road. 

The  old  ways  were  first  made  of  wood,  then  of  wood 
faced  with  iron,  then  altogether  of  iron. 

Now,  in  making  his  railway  between  Liverpool  and 
Manchester,  Stephenson  had  many  difficulties  to  en- 
counter. He  decided  that  the  line  should  be  as  direct 
as  possible.  But  to  accomplish  this,  he  would  have  to 
pierce  hills,  build  embankments,  raise  viaducts,  and, 
hardest  of  all,  construct  a  firm  causeway  across  a 
treacherous  bog  called  Chat  Moss. 

"  He  will  never  do  it,"  said  some  of  the  most  famous 
engineers  of  the  day.  "  It  is  impossible  ! " 

Impossible  it  certainly  seemed  to  be.  Chat  Moss 
was  like  a  sponge,  and  how  was  an  engineer  to  build  a 
solid  road  for  heavy  trains  over  four  miles  of  soppy 
sponge !  A  person  could  not  trust  himself  upon  it 
in  safety,  and  when  men  did  venture,  they  fastened 
flat  boards  to  their  feet,  something  after  the  fashion 
of  snow-shoes,  and  floundered  along  upon  them. 

Stephenson  began  by  taking  the  levels  of  the  Moss 
in  a  similar  manner.  Boards  were  placed  upon  the 
spongy  moss,  and  a  footpath  of  heather  followed.  Then 
came  a  temporary  railroad.  On  this  ran  the  trucks 
containing  the  material  for  a  permanent  path,  which 
were  pushed  by  boys  who  learned  to  trot  along  easily 
on  the  narrow  rails. 

Drains  were  dug  on  either  side  of  the  proposed  road, 
and  tar-barrels  covered  with  clay  were  fitted  into  a 
sewer  underneath  the  line  in  the  middle  of  the  Moss. 
Heather,  hurdles,  tree  branches,  etc.,  were  spread  on  the 
surface,  and  in  some  parts  an  embankment  of  dry  moss 
itself  was  laid  down.  Ton  after  ton  of  it  disappeared 
until  the  directors  became  alarmed,  and  the  desperate 
expedient  of  abandoning  the  works  was  considered. 

But  Stephenson  was  an  Englishman  out  and  out. 
He  never  knew  when  he  was  beaten.  "Keep  on 


FIFTEEN    MILES    AN    HOUR.  31 

filling,"  he  ordered ;  and  in  spite  of  all  criticism  and 
all  alarm,  he  kept  his  hundreds  of  navvies  hard  at 
work,  pouring  in  load  after  load  of  dry  turf. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  Stephenson 
did  not  continue  blindly  at  his  task.  He  had  good 
reason  for  what  he  did.  His  persistence  was  a  patient, 
intelligent  perseverance,  and  not  a  stupid  obstinacy. 
His  main  arguments  seem  to  have  been  two.  He 
judged  that  if  he  constructed  a  sufficiently  wide  road, 
it  would  float  on  the  moss,  even  as  ice  or  a  raft  of  wood 
floats  on  water  and  bears  heavy  weights  ;  and  secondly, 
he  seems  to  have  been  animated  by  the  idea,  that,  if 
necessary,  he  could  pour  in  enough  solid  or  fairly  solid 
stuff  to  reach  the  bottom  and  rise  up  to  the  surface  in 
a  hard  mass. 

Both  ideas  seem  to  have  been  realised  in  different 
parts  of  the  bog.  Joy  took  the  place  of  despair,  and 
triumph  exulted  over  discouragement,  as  at  length  the 
solid  mass  appeared  through  the  surface.  Further- 
more, the  expense  was  found  to  be  none  so  costly  after 
all.  No  doubt  any  quantity  of  turf  could  be  obtained 
from  the  surrounding  parts  of  the  Moss  and  dried. 

At  another  part  of  the  railway  called  Parr  Moss  an 
embankment  about  a  mile  and  a  half  was  formed  by 
pouring  into  it  stone  and  clay  from  a  "  cutting "  in 
the  neighbourhood.  In  some  places  twenty-five  feet 
of  earth  was  thus  concealed  beneath  the  Moss.  The 
eye  of  the  engineer  had  as  it  were  pierced  through 
the  bog  and  seen  that  his  solid  bank  was  steadily  being 
built  up  there. 

Before,  however,  the  road  across  Chat  Moss  was  fairly 
opened,  the  trial  of  locomotives  for  the  prize  of  £500  had 
taken  place.  The  fateful  day  was  the  1st  day  of  October, 
1829,  and  the  competition  was  held  at  Rainhill.  A 
grand  stand  was  erected,  and  the  side  of  the  railway 
was  crowded.  Thousands  of  spectators  were  present. 
The  future  of  the  locomotive  was  to  be  decided  on  this 
momentous  occasion. 

Now,  hitherto  the  difficulty  in  the  locomotive  had 


32  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

been  to  supply  a  steady  and  sufficient  supply  of  steam 
to  work  the  engine  quickly  and  attain  high  speed  and 
power.  Partly,  this  had  been  accomplished  by  Stephen- 
son's  device  of  the  steam  blast  in  the  funnel.  But  some- 
thing more  was  needed. 

That  requirement  was  found  in  the  tubular  boiler. 
If  the  long  locomotive  boiler  were  pierced  with  tubes 
from  end  to  end,  it  is  clear  that  the  amount  of  heating 
surface  offered  to  the  action  of  the  fire  would  be  greatly 
increased.  It  was  this  idea  which  was  utilised  in  the 
"  Rocket,"  the  engine  with  which  Stephenson  com- 
peted at  Rainhill,  and  utilised  more  perfectly  than  ever 
before. 

Trevithick  himself  seems  to  have  invented  something 
of  the  kind,  and  M.  Seguin,  the  engineer  of  the  St. 
Etienne  and  Lyons  Railway  utilised  a  similar  method. 
But  Henry  Booth,  the  secretary  of  the  railway  which 
Stephenson  was  then  building,  invented  a  tubular 
boiler  without,  it  is  said,  knowing  anything  of  Seguin's 
plan,  and  Stephenson  who  had  already  experimented 
in  the  same  direction,  adopted  Booth's  method. 

At  first  it  was  a  failure.  The  boiler,  fitted  with 
tubes  through  which  the  hot  air  could  pass,  leaked 
disastrously,  and  Stephen  son's  son,  Robert,  wrote  to 
his  father  in  despair.  But  again  George  said  "  per- 
severe," and  he  suggested  a  plan  for  conquering  the 
difficulty.  Again,  it  was  a  simple,  but  as  the  event 
proved,  an  effective  plan. 

The  copper  tubes  were  merely  to  be  fitted  tightly  to 
holes  bored  in  the  boiler  and  soldered  in.  The  heat 
caused  the  copper  to  expand  and  the  result  was  a  very 
strong  and  water-tight  boiler.  There  were  twenty-five 
of  these  tubes,  each  three  inches  in  diameter,  and  placed 
in  the  lower  portion  of  the  boiler,  leading  from  the 
furnace  to  the  funnel.  Water  also  surrounded  the 
furnace.  Further,  the  nozzles  of  the  steam-blast  pipes 
were  contracted  so  as  to  increase  the  power  of  the  blast, 
and  consequently  raise  the  strength  of  the  draught  to 
the  fire. 


;THE   ROCKET." 


FIFTEEN    MILES    AN    HOUR.  35 

The  cylinders  were  not  placed  at  the  top  of  the 
boiler,  but  at  the  sides  in  a  slanting  direction,  one  end 
being  about  level  with  the  boiler  roof.  They  occupied 
a  position  mid-way  between  the  old  situation  upright 
on  the  roof  and  their  present  position  below,  or  at  the 
lower  portion.  The  pistons  acted  directly  on  the  driv- 
ing wheels  by  means  of  a  connecting  rod,  and  the 
entire  weight  of  the  engine  with  water  supply  was 
but  4J  tons. 

On  the  day  of  trial  only  four  engines  competed. 
Many  had  been  constructed,  but  either  were  not  com- 
pleted in  time,  or  for  various  reasons  could  not  be 
exhibited.  The  famous  four  were  :— The  "  Novelty " 
by  Messrs.  Braithwaite  and  Ericsson ;  The  "  Rocket " 
by  Messrs.  R.  Stephenson  &  Co. ;  The  "  Perseverance  " 
by  Mr.  Burstall ;  and  The  "  Sanspareil "  by  Mr.  Timothy 
Hackworth.  Each  engine  seems  to  have  run  separately, 
and  the  length  of  the  course  was  two  miles.  The  test 
was  that  the  engine  should  run  thirty  miles,  backwards 
and  forwards,  on  the  two  mile  level  course,  at  not  less 
than  ten  miles  an  hour,  dragging  three  times  its  own 
weight. 

The  "  Novelty "  at  first  appears  to  have  beaten  the 
"  Rocket,"  for  she  ran  at  times  at  the  rate  of  twenty- 
four  miles  an  hour ;  while  the  first  trip  of  the  "  Rocket " 
covered  a  dozen  miles  in  fifty- three  minutes.  The 
engineers  of  the  "  Novelty  "  used  bellows  to  force  the 
fire,  but  on  the  second  day  these  bellows  gave  way,  and 
the  engine  could  not  do  its  work.  The  boiler  of  the 
"  Sanspareil "  also  showed  defects,  but  Stephenson's 
"  Rocket "  calmly  stood  the  strain.  Practicable  as 
usual,  Stephenson's  work  was  as  good  in  its  results,  nay, 
even  better  than  before,  for  he  hooked  the  "Rocket" 
to  a  carriage  load  of  thirty  people,  and  rushed  them 
along  at  the  then  surprising  speed  of  between  twenty- 
four  to  thirty  miles  an  hour.  Mr.  Burstall's  "Perse- 
verance" could  not  cover  more  than  six  miles  an 
hour. 

The   competitions    continued,   but    the    "Novelty," 


36  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

although  running  at  the  rate  of  twenty-four  and  even 
twenty-eight  miles  an  hour,  broke  down  again  and  yet 
again ;  its  boiler  plates  appear  to  have  gone  wrong  on 
one  occasion ;  while  the  "  Sanspareil "  also  failed,  and 
furthermore  blew  a  good  deal  of  its  fuel  into  the  air 
because  of  the  arrangement  of  its  steam-blast. 

But  the  more  the  "Rocket"  was  tried,  the  more  prac- 
ticable and  reliable  the  engine  appeared  to  be.  On  the 
8th  of  October  it  gained  a  speed  of  29  miles  an  hour, 
its  steam  pressure  being  about  50  Ibs.  to  the  square 
inch,  and  its  average  speed  was  fifteen  miles  an  hour — 
that  is,  five  miles  an  hour  over  the  conditions  required. 
These  results  appear  to  have  been  accomplished  with  a 
weight  of  waggons  of  thirteen  tons  behind  it.  When 
detached  it  ran  at  the  rate  of  thirty-five  miles  an  hour. 

In  short,  the  "Rocket"  was  the  only  locomotive 
which  fulfilled  all  the  conditions  specified  for  the 
competition,  and  the  prize  was  duly  awarded  to 
Stephenson  and  Booth. 

The  battle  of  the  locomotive  was  won.  Men  could 
see  that  the  machine  was  feasible  and  practicable ; 
that  it  was  a  new  force  with  immense  possibilities 
before  it. 

How  have  those  possibilities  been  realised  ? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A   MARVEL   OF   MECHANISM. 

"  rT^HE  time  is  coming  when  it  will  be  cheaper  for  a 
working  man  to  travel  on  a  railway  than  to 
JL       walk  on  foot." 

So  prophesied  George  Stephenson  some  few 
years  before  his  successful  competition  at  Rainhill ;  and 
by  his  success  on  that  fateful  day,  he  had  brought  the 
time  appreciably  nearer.  The  directors  of  the  Liver- 


A    MARVEL    OF    MECHANISM.  37 

pool  and  Manchester  Railway  no  longer  debated  as  to 
what  form  of  traction  they  should  adopt. 

But  Stephenson  did  not  rest  on  his  laurels.  Every 
new  engine  showed  some  improvement.  The  "  Arrow  " 
sped  over  Chat  Moss  at  about  27  miles  an  hour,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  first  complete  journey  along  the  line,  on 
the  14th  of  June,  1830 ;  and  when,  on  the  public  open- 
ing of  the  railway  on  the  15th  of  September,  1830,  Mr. 
William  Huskisson,  M.P.,  was  unhappily  knocked  down 
by  the  "  Rocket,"  George  Stephenson  himself  took  the 
maimed  body  in  the  "  Northumbrian,"  fifteen  miles  in 
twenty-five  minutes — that  is,  he  drove  the  engine  at  the 
speed  of  thirty-six  miles  an  hour. 

The  sad  death  of  Mr.  Huskisson  has  often  been 
referred  to,  but  we  may  tell  the  story  again,  following 
the  account  given  by  Mr.  Smiles,  who  had  the  advantage 
of  the  assistance  of  Robert  Stephenson  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  his  biography. 

The  engines  it  appears  halted  at  Parkside,  some 
seventeen  miles  from  Liverpool,  to  obtain  water.  The 
"  Northumbrian,"  with  a  carriage  containing  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  and  some  friends,  stood  on  one  line,  so 
that  all  the  trains  might  pass  him  in  review  on  the 
other.  Mr.  Huskisson  had  descended  from  the  carriage 
and  was  standing  on  the  rail  on  which  the  "  Rocket " 
was  rapidly  approaching.  There  had  been  some  coolness 
between  the  Duke  and  Mr.  Huskisson,  but  at  this  time 
the  Duke  extended  his  hand  and  Mr.  Huskisson  hurried 
to  grasp  it,  when  the  bystanders  cried  "  Get  in !  get  in." 

Mr.  Huskisson  became  flurried  and  endeavoured  to 
go  round  the  carriage  door  which  was  open  and  hung 
over  the  rail;  but  while  doing  this,  the  "Rocket" 
struck  him  and  he  fell,  his  leg  being  doubled  over  the 
rail  and  immediately  crushed.  Unfortunately  he  died 
that  evening  at  Eccles  Parsonage. 

This  sad  event  cast  a  gloom  over  the  otherwise 
rejoicing  day ;  but  the  wonderful  speed  at  which  the 
wounded  man  was  conveyed,  proved  a  marvellous  object 
lesson  as  to  what  the  locomotive  could  accomplish. 


38  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

In  the  "  Planet/'  put  upon  the  line  shortly  after  the 
opening,  the  cylinders  were  placed  horizontally  and 
within  the  fire  box.  The  engine  drew  eighty  tons  from 
Liverpool  to  Manchester  against  a  strong  wind  in  two 
and  a-half  hours,  while  on  another  occasion  with  a 
company  of  voters,  it  sped  from  Manchester  to  Liver- 
pool, thirty-one  miles,  in  an  hour.  But  next  year  the 
"  Samson,"  which  was  still  further  improved,  and  the 
wheels  of  which  were  coupled  so  as  to  secure  greater 
grip  on  the  rails,  hauled  150  tons  at  twenty  miles  an 
hour  with  a  smaller  consumption  of  fuel. 

The  locomotive  had  now  become  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world.  Since  then  its  speed  has  been  doubled. 
But  all  the  improvements  (with  possibly  one  exception 
— that  of  the  compound  cylinder  which  is  at  present 
only  partially  in  use)  have  been  more  in  details  than  in 
principles.  Thus  the  70  or  80  ton  express  engine, 
which  covers  mile  after  mile  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  a 
minute  without  a  wheeze  or  a  groan,  is  not  very 
different  essentially  from  George  Stephenson's  loco- 
motives, though  its  steam  pressure  is  very  much 
higher. 

There  are,  for  instance,  the  multitubular  boiler,  the 
furnace  surrounded  by  water  and  communicating  with 
the  boiler,  the  horizontal  cylinders  acting  directly  on 
the  driving  wheels,  and  the  steam-blast  by  which 
the  waste  steam  is  spouted  up  the  chimney,  creat- 
ing a  draught  in  the  furnace. 

These  may  be  regarded  as  the  more  important  of  the 
essential  principles,  although  there  is  diversity  of  details, 
more  especially  for  the  different  work  required.  But 
the  steam  pressure  is  now  much  greater.  Let  us  glaftce 
at  a  typical  English  locomotive.  You  might  not  think 
it,  but  the  machine  has  about  five  thousand  different 
parts,  all  put  together  as  Robert  Stephenson  said  "  as 
carefully  as  a  watch." 

At  first  sight  you  will  probably  not  see  the  cylinders. 
The  tendency  in  many  engines  now  seems  to  be  to  place 
them  inside  the  wheels,  for  it  is  urged  that  the  placing 


A    MARVEL    OF    MECHANISM.  39 

of  the  heavier  parts  of  the  mechanism  near  to  the 
centre  lessens  oscillation,  and  protects  the  machinery 
more  effectually.  Against  this,  it  is  said  that  the  plac- 
ing of  the  cylinders  in  that  position  increases  the  cost 
and  the  complication  of  the  driving  axle,  and  renders 
the  pistons  and  valves  more  inaccessible  for  the  pur- 
poses of  repair.  Both  forms  have  their  advocates,  and 
the  outside-cylinder  form  may  be  seen  on  the  London 
and  South- Western  and  some  other  railways,  while  the 
inside  may  be  seen  on  the  North- Western  and  others. 

The  boiler  is  of  course  the  long,  round  body  of  the 
locomotive,  and  in  English  machines  it  is  placed  on 
a  strong  plate  frame.  Then  as  to  the  driving-wheels. 
Express  engines,  such  as  the  splendid  "  eight-feet 
singles "  of  the  Great  Northern,  have  often,  as  the 
name  implies,  but  one  large  driving-wheel  on  either 
side,  and  for  great  speeds  this  form  is  held  to  possess 
certain  advantages.  Certainly  the  performances  of 
Mr.  Patrick  Stirling's  expresses  would  indicate  that 
this  is  the  case. 

With  steam  raising  the  safety  valve  at  a  pressure 
of  140  Ibs.  to  the  square  inch,  the  engines  will  whisk 
a  score  of  carriages  out  of  King's  Cross  up  the  northern 
height  of  London  at  forty  miles  an  hour,  and  then  with- 
out a  stop  rush  on  to  Grantham  at  near  sixty.  Stand- 
ing on  the  platform  at  King's  Cross,  with  a  large  part 
of  the  immense  driving-wheel  hidden  below  you  as 
it  rests  on  the  rail,  you  do  not  realise  its  tremendous 
size.  Yet,  let  the  engine-driver  open  the  throttle,  as 
it  is  called — that  is,  turn  on  the  steam  to  the  cylinders 
— and  that  huge  wheel  will  revolve,  and  with  its  neigh- 
bour on  the  other  side,  haul  after  them  that  heavy 
train  of  carriages,  and,  gathering  speed  as  they  go,  they 
will  soon  be  rushing  up  the  incline  at  forty  miles  an 
hour,  and  then  on  at  sixty.  It  is  a  marvel  of 
mechanism ! 

But  then  the  compound  engines  that  Mr.  F.  W. 
Webb,  the  engineer  of  the  North- Western,  builds  for 
that  Company  can  also  perform  remarkable  things. 


40  ENGINEERS   AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

The  compound  is  the  great  modern  improvement 
(some  engineers  might  doubt  whether  improvement 
•be  the  correct  word)  in  the  locomotive,  effecting, 
it  is  said,  an  economy  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  per 
cent,  in  fuel.  Now  the  compounding  principle  has 
been  developed  to  such  an  extent  in  marine  steam 
engines  that  it  revolutionised  steam  navigation.  But 
the  application  of  the  principle  has  not  been  so  great 
in  the  case  of  the  locomotive. 

Briefly,  the  principle  is  this — the  steam  is  sent  out 
from  the  boiler  at  a  high  pressure,  say  160  to  180 
Ibs.  to  the  square  inch,  and  is  used  in  one  or 
in  a  pair  of  high-pressure  cylinders,  and  then  used 
again,  by  means  of  its  expanding  power,  in  a  larger, 
low-pressure  cylinder.  Mr.  John  Nicholson,  of  the 
Great  Eastern  Railway,  suggested  a  compound  loco- 
motive before  even  the  compound  marine  engine  had 
been  made,  and  his  design  was  successful ;  but  in  1881 
Mr.  Webb,  of  the  North- Western,  patented  a  compound 
locomotive,  with  two  small  high-pressure,  and  one  large 
low-pressure  cylinders,  the  latter  twenty-six  inches  in 
diameter.  Placed  between  the  front  wheels,  the  bright 
boss  of  this  cylinder  may  be  seen  in  shining  steel  as  it 
flies  over  the  rails. 

The  argument  is  that  the  compound  burns  less  fuel 
and  is  more  powerful  than  a  non-compound  of  the  same 
weight ;  but  against  this  is  launched  the  objection  that 
the  compound  is  more  expensive  to  build,  to  repair,  and 
to  maintain.  Still  further  it  is  argued,  that  a  fast- 
speeding  locomotive  has  not  the  time  in  its  hurrying 
life  to  expand  its  steam  in  the  tick  of  time  between 
each  stroke  of  the  piston. 

Mr.  Worsdell's  compounds  on  the  North-Eastern 
Railway  have  but  two  cylinders,  one  high  and  the 
other  low-pressure.  The  one  is  eighteen  and  the  other 
twenty-six  inches  across.  Instead  of  the  steam  alter- 
nating between  the  two  cylinders,  it  all  passes  first 
to  the  high-pressure  and  then,  through  a  pipe  in  the 
smoke-box,  to  the  larger  low-pressure  cylinder.  These 


41 


A    MARVEL    OF    MECHANISM.  43 

locomotives,  it  is  said,  are  not  under  the  objection 
alleged  against  the  other  compounds — viz.,  that  they 
have  more  parts,  and  are  more  costly  to  build  and 
maintain.  Yet  it  is  claimed  for  them  that  they  are 
more  economical  and  more  powerful  than  non-com- 
pounds. 

When  doctors  disagree  who  shall  decide  ?  The  cost 
or  speed  might  decide ;  but  at  present  it  seems  doubt- 
ful on  which  side  the  balance  does  really  fall.  Engines 
of  the  three  types  have  done  splendid  work.  A  Wors- 
dell  compound,  built  by  Mr.  Worsdell,  of  the  North- 
Eastern  Railway,  is  reported  to  have  rushed  down  the 
incline  to  Berwick  one  day  at  seventy-six  miles  an 
hour  for  some  miles  at  a  time.  Then  the  "  Greater 
Britain,"  a  massive  North- Western  compound  engine, 
turned  out  at  the  Crewe  works  in  1891,  and  weighing 
seventy-five  tons,  can  whirl  along  with  ease  a  heavy 
twenty-five  coach  express  at  an  average  of  over  fifty 
miles  an  hour,  with  a  comparatively  small  consumption 
of  fuel. 

This  locomotive  was  described  in  the  Engineer  news- 
paper as  the  most  remarkable  that  had  been  built  in 
England  for  several  years.  Its  axle  bearings  are  of 
great  length,  and  its  parts  are  very  substantial,  so 
that  it  ought  to  keep  out  of  the  repairing  shops  for 
long  spells  of  time.  It  was  specially  planned  for  both 
fast  and  heavy  passenger  traffic  to  Scotland,  and  its 
work  on  its  trial  trip  was  so  good  that  it  was  con- 
fidently expected  it  would  answer  expectations.  In 
working,  the  engine  has  been  found  to  develop  great 
speed  and  power,  easily  running  at  over  fifty  miles  an 
hour  with  what  is  called  a  double  train — viz.,  twenty- 
five  coaches,  behind  it.  Indeed,  it  has  run  at  fifty- 
five  miles  with  this  heavy  train.  Its  stated  speed 
ranges  from  thirty  to  fifty-five  miles  an  hour,  with 
a  low  consumption  of  fuel. 

This  last  is  a  matter  of  very  great  importance  to 
engineers  and  railway  directors  ;  and  when  we  state 
that,  according  to  Mr.  Bowen  Cooke,  the  North- Western 


44 


ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 


engines  altogether  burn  3095  tons  of  coal  per  day,  any 
small  saving  per  hour  would  be  eagerly  welcomed. 

Now,  it  is  claimed  that  the  compounds  have  consumed 
about  six  pounds  of  coal  per  mile  less  than  others  on  the 
same  work,  and  that  they  also  haul  along  loads  which 
would  require  two  of  the  other  type.  If  so,  the  saving 
in  the  North -Western  coal-bill  must  be  enormous. 


BA.CK   AND   FRONT   VIEW    OF   THE   LOCOMOTIVE  "GREATER   BRITAIN." 

A  great  feature  in  this  engine  is  a  combustion 
chamber  placed  within  the  barrel  of  the  boiler.  This 
chamber  catches  all  the  gases  from  the  furnace,  and 
causes  the  heat  generated  by  them  to  be  used  to  the 
utmost  for  the  production  of  steam.  Though  heavier 
than  any  engine  previously  built,  yet  it  is  so  made  that 
no  greater  weight  than  usual  rests  upon  any  of  the 


A    MARVEL    OF    MECHANISM.  45 

wheels,  thus  throwing  no  extra  strain  on  the  railway  or 
the  bridges.  The  two  couples  of  driving-wheels  are 
placed  before  the  furnace,  and  an  additional  couple  of 
small  wheels  behind  the  furnace,  and  beneath  the  foot- 
plate where  the  driver  and  fireman  stand.  The  weight 
therefore  is  evenly  distributed,  with  another  pair  of 
wheels  to  bear  the  burden.  The  front  wheels  are  fitted 
with  the  radial  axle-box  patented  by  Mr.  Webb,  so 
that,  although  the  engine  is  of  great  length,  yet  it  can 
speed  round  curves  with  perfect  safety. 

Yet  this  engine,  though  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
developments  of  the  locomotive,  is  in  essence  and  in 
principle  but  very  like  the  "  Rocket."  The  difference  lies 
in  its  innumerable  details,  exhibiting  so  much  engineer- 
ing skill  and  ingenuity,  in  the  compound  cylinders,  in 
higher  pressure  steam,  and  in  its  marvellous  power  and 
speed  combined. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Great  Northern  runs  daily 
from  Grantham  to  London  at  fifty-three  and  fifty-four 
miles  an  hour  average  ;  while  it  was  reported  in  the 
Engineer  of  the  10th  of  March,  1888,  that  a  Great 
Northern  train  from  Manchester  to  London,  when  run- 
ning from  Grantham  to  London,  covered  one  mile  in 
forty-six  seconds,  that  is,  at  the  rate  of  seventy-eight 
and  a-quarter  miles  an  hour,  and  two  miles  following 
each  other  were  run  in  forty-seven  seconds  each,  that 
is,  seventy-six  miles  an  hour.  We  doubt,  indeed,  if  any 
railway  in  the  world  can  show  regular  faster  daily  run- 
ning than  some  of  the  Great  Northern  expresses  be- 
tween London  and  Grantham.  The  average  speed  of 
their  Manchester  train  over  this  ground  is  slightly 
over  fifty-four  miles  an  hour.  Then  there  are  the 
Great  Western  expresses,  the  "  Dutchman "  and  the 
"  Zulu,"  at  only  slightly  less  speeds,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  fine  performances  of  the  Midland.  We  may  take 
it,  therefore,  that  the  compound  locomotives,  excellent 
as  their  work  has  been,  have  not  really  beaten  their 
rivals  in  point  of  speed. 

Compounds  are  used  largely  on  the  North- Western, 


46  ENGINEEKS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

the  Great  Eastern,  and  the  North-Eastern,  and  should 
they  prove  to  be  really  more  economical  in  working, 
while  maintaining  at  least  equal  power  and  speed  with 
their  rivals,  we  have  no  doubt  but  that  they  will 
prevail. 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  MILE   A  MINUTE. 

"  r  I  ">HE  express  is  to  be  quickened,  my  lord.      Mr. 
Thompson,   the   general    manager,   has   given 

JL       instructions  to  that  effect." 

So  spoke  the  station  master  at  Carlisle,  on 
the  17th  of  March,  1894,  to  Lord  Rosebery. 

His  lordship  had  very  recently  been  appointed  Prime 
Minister,  and  was  on  his  way  to  Edinburgh  to  deliver 
a  great  public  speech.  The  train,  presumably,  was 
late,  or  he,  through  stress  of  business  probably,  had 
left  too  little  margin  of  time.  However,  by  the 
instructions  of  Mr.  Thompson,  the  general  manager  of 
the  Caledonian  Railway,  the  express  was  accelerated, 
and  it  rushed  over  101  miles  in  105  minutes,  one  of 
the  quickest  locomotive  runs,  we  imagine,  that  have 
ever  been  recorded.  The  train  arrived  fifteen  minutes 
before  it  was  due,  and  Lord  Rosebery  was  enabled  to 
keep  his  engagement. 

This  run  was  approximately  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  a 
minute,  and  maintained  for  an  hour  and  three  quarters. 
Only  some  two  years  or  so  previously  a  somewhat  similar 
run  was  made.  An  officer  of  the  Guards  found  that 
he  had  lost  the  south-going  mail  train  at  Stirling.  He 
had  been  on  leave  in  Scotland,  and  was  bound  to 
report  himself  in  London  next  morning. 

What  was  he  to  do  ?  Did  he  sit  down  and  moan,  or 
fly  to  the  telegraph  office  and  endeavour  to  excuse 
himself?  Not  he.  He  promptly  engaged  a  special 


A    MILE    A    MINUTE.  47 

train,  which  flying  over  the  metals,  actually  caught 
the  mail  at  Carlisle,  having  covered  118  miles  in  126 
minutes ;  that  is,  again,  approximately  a  mile  a  minute, 
and  maintained  for  slightly  over  two  hours. 

Now,  in  order  to  attain  high  average  speed,  some 
parts  of  the  journey,  say  very  easy  inclines  or  levels, 
must  be  covered  at  a  much  higher  rate.  Thus,  to 
obtain  an  average  of  fifty-two  miles  an  hour — which  is 
probably  the  regular  average  of  our  best  English 
expresses — the  pace  will  most  likely  be  sometimes  at 
the  rate  of  seventy,  or  it  may  be  seventy-six,  miles  per 
hour. 

The  United  States  have  claimed  to  run  the  fastest 
regular  train.  This  is  the  "Empire  State  Express" 
of  the  New  York  Central,  which  bursts  away  from  New 
York  to  Buffalo,  a  trip  of  140  miles,  at  the  average 
rate  of  52TW  miles  per  hour,  but  running  eighty 
miles  at  the  rate  of  56f  miles  an  hour.  It  is  also 
said  that,  in  August,  1891,  a  train  on  the  New  York 
portion  of  the  Reading  road  ran  a  mile  in  less  than 
forty  seconds,  and  covered  a  dozen  miles  at  an  average 
of  barely  43^  seconds  per  mile. 

English  expresses  could  certainly  accomplish  these 
average  speeds,  but  the  fact  is  very  high  speeds  do  not 
pay.  They  wear  everything  to  pieces.  Then  there  is 
the  coal  consumption.  American  railway  engineers — 
according  to  the  Engineer  newspaper  — "  seem  to  be 
unable  to  get  on  with  less  than  100  Ibs.  per  square  foot 
(of  fire  grate  area)  as  a  minimum ; "  while,  from  the 
same  paper,  we  learn  that  the  average  rate  of  burning 
of  Mr.  Webb's  remarkable  North- Western  engine,  the 
"  Greater  Britain,"  was  but  "  a  little  over  seventy-three 
Ibs.  per  square  foot  per  hour,"  or,  altogether,  1500  Ibs. 
per  hour. 

The  rails  also  are  greatly  worn  by  continuous  high 
speeds.  Engineers  have  been  equal  to  this  difficulty, 
and  rails  are  now  made  of  steel,  and  even  steel  sleepers 
are  constructed  on  which  the  rails  repose.  But  still 
the  wear  and  tear,  especially  to  engines,  of  continuous 


48  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

high  speeds,  is  very  great.  The  reason  why  the  famous 
"  Race  to  Edinburgh "  was  stopped  was  doubtless 
because  of  the  needless  wear  and  tear.  Surely  an 
average  of  fifty  to  fifty-two  miles  an  hour  is  fast 
enough  for  all  ordinary  purposes.  If  greater  speed 
can  be  obtained  without  too  great  a  cost,  well  and 
good ;  but  if  not,  the  public  must  be  content. 

Nevertheless,  during  that  famous  "Race"  in  the 
summer  of  1888,  some  magnificent  engine  work  was 
accomplished.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  North- Western 
and  their  partners  actually  ran  from  Euston  to  Edin- 
burgh, 400  miles,  in  427  minutes.  Then  the  Great 
Northern  and  their  partners,  the  East  Coast  route, 
next  day  covered  393  miles  in  423  minutes,  this  journey 
including  124J  miles  from  Newcastle  to  Edinburgh 
covered  in  123  minutes.  This  speed  is,  of  course,  more 
than  a  mile  a  minute,  and  kept  up  for  slightly  over  two 
hours. 

The  third-class  passenger  was  at  the  root  of  the 
matter.  Companies  are  finding  out  they  must  consult 
his  convenience  ;  and  the  beginning  of  the  "  Race  "  was 
probably  the  announcement  that  the  "  Flying  Scotch- 
man"— the  10  o'clock  morning  train  from  King's 
Cross — would  carry  third  class  passengers.  Hitherto  it 
had  beaten  its  rival,  the  West  Coast  route  (run  by  the 
North- Western  and  its  partner,  the  Caledonian),  as  to 
speed,  but  had  conveyed  only  first  and  second-class 
passengers. 

Thereupon  the  West  Coast  announced  that  they 
would  reach  Edinburgh  in  nine  hours.  As  this  route 
is  harder  for  engines — for  it  climbs  the  Cumbrian 
Hills,  and  is,  moreover,  seven  miles  longer — this  would 
mean  faster  running  and  harder  work  than  its  rivals. 
The  Great  Northern,  which  according  to  its  well- 
deserved  reputation  probably  tops  the  world  for  speed, 
could  not  brook  this,  so  the  East  Coast  route  reduced 
its  time  from  nine  hours  to  eight  hours  and  a-half. 

So  the  contest  stood  for  about  a  month,  when  the 
West  Coast  calmly  announced  the  same  time  for  its 


A    MILE    A    MINUTE.  49 

journey.  Thenceforward  the  blows  fell  thick  and  fast. 
It  was  a  battle  of  giants,  but  fought  with  good  temper 
and  gentlemanly  honour  on  both  sides. 

The  West  Coast  were  arriving  at  Edinburgh  at  half- 
past  six.  "The  Flying  Scotchman,"  by  the  East  Coast 
route,  thereupon  drew  up  in  the  Scotch  capital  at  six 
o'clock.  Then  the  West  Coast  ran  to  Edinburgh  in 
eight  hours,  stretching  away  from  Euston  to  Crewe, 
158^  miles  in  178  minutes,  without  a  stop — probably 
the  longest  run  without  a  break  ever  made.  The 
Caledonian  Company,  the  North-Western's  partner, 
then  ran  from  Carlisle  to  Edinburgh,  lOOf  miles,  in 

104  minutes.     The  North- Western  thereupon  actually 
ran   from   Preston   to   Carlisle,   over  the  Cumberland 
Hills,  ninety  miles  in  ninety  minutes — a  magnificent 
performance  hard  indeed  to  beat,  if,  in  fact,  it  ever 
has   been   really   beaten ;    while,   later   on,   the   same 
Company  ran  from  Euston  to  Crewe  in  167  minutes 
instead  of  their  remarkable  178  minutes  a  few  days 
previously.     This,  with   the   other  accelerations,  gave 
the  West  Coast  their  record  run  of  400  miles  in  427 
minutes  of  running  time,  which  took  place  on  the  13th  of 
August.     But  the  East  Coast  had  also  accelerated,  the 
North-Eastern  covering  205  miles  in  235  minutes,  and 
the  Great  Northern  rendering  an  equally  good,  if  not 
better,  performance,  the  whole  393  miles  being  covered 
in  423  minutes.     Some  of  the  miles  on  the  East  Coast 
route  sped  by  at  the  rate  of  seventy-six  an  hour. 

To  accomplish  these  runs  the  weight  of  trains  was 
cut  down,  and  the  times  of  stoppages  reduced  or 
abolished  altogether.  But  the  expense  was  too  great. 
It  did  not  really  "  pay "  in  convenience  or  in  money, 
and  to  these  judgments  companies  must  bow.  But 
considering  that  the  Great  Northern  reaches  Grantham, 

105  J  miles,  in  115  minutes  as  a  daily  occurrence,  an 
approximate   running    of  near   a  mile  a  minute,  and 
that   the   North- Western  can  run   at   an   average   of 
fifty-five   miles   an    hour,   the   locomotive   has   amply 
justified  George  Stephenson's  prophecy  when  he  made 

D 


50  ENGINEEES    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

"Blucher,"  that  there  was  no  limit  to  the  speed  of 
the  locomotive,  provided  the  work  could  be  made  to 
stand. 

Mr.  C.  R.  Deacon  also  prophesied  a  few  years  since 
in  an  American  magazine  that  a  hundred  miles  an  hour 
would  be  the  express  speed  of  the  future,  provided  that 
passengers  would  give  up  luxurious  cars  and  dining  and 
sleeping  carriages.  At  present  it  seems  questionable  if 
they  will  do  so. 

But  speed  is  by  no  means  the  monopoly  of  the  North. 
Other  companies  beside  the  owners  of  the  East  and 


THE  "FLYING  DUTCHMAN." 

West  Coast  routes  to  Scotland  can  run  expresses  equally 
or  almost  as  fast.  There  is  the  "  Flying  Dutchman, "  for 
instance,  of  the  Great  Western.  It  daily  covers  the  77-J 
miles  from  London  to  Swindon  in  87  minutes.  And 
the  tale  is  told  by  Mr.  W.  M.  Acworth,  on  the  authority 
of  an  inspector  who  was  in  charge  of  the  train,  that  a 
famous  Great  Western  engine,  the  "  Lord  of  the  Isles," 
which  was  in  the  Exhibition  of  1851,  actually  whirled 
a  train  from  Swindon  to  London,  77-J  miles  in  72 
minutes. 


A    MILE    A    MINUTE.  51 

Some  of  those  older  engines  could  run  bravely.  Mr. 
Acworth  reports  that  "a  Bristol  and  Exeter  tank- 
engine  with  9  feet  driving  wheels,  a  long  extinct 
species,"  pelted  down  a  steep  incline  at  the  speed  of 
80  miles  an  hour,  many  years  since,  and  it  has  never 
been  surpassed.  The  fastest  speed  during  the  Race  to 
Edinburgh  days  seems  to  have  been  76  miles,  but  per- 
haps the  weight  of  the  trains  may  have  accounted  for 
this.  Mr.  Acworth  himself  is  believed  to  have  accom- 
plished the  fastest  bit  of  advertised  journeying  in  the 
world.  He  went  down  on  the  "  Dutchman,"  and  leaving 
Paddington  at  11.46,  he  caught  the  return  train  at 
Swindon  and  was  back  at  2.45,  having  covered  154J 
miles,  with  five  minutes  for  refreshments,  in  177 
minutes.  The  line  is  easier  on  the  up  journey  to 
London,  and  mile  after  mile  sped  by  at  a  rate  of  over 
60  miles  an  hour.  From  56|  to  58  seconds  was  the 
chronograph's  record  again  and  again,  while  on  the 
down  journey  to  Swindon  he  records  a  burst  of  34J 
miles  in  34  minutes. 

The  gradients  of  the  railway  form  of  course  a  most 
important  factor  in  the  question  of  speed.  The  Mid- 
land has  one  of  the  hardest  roads  in  England  for  steep 
slopes,  yet  its  magnificent  engines  bring  its  heavy 
trains  from  Leicester,  99f  miles  in  122  minutes.  Con- 
sidering the  high  levels  the  locomotives  have  to  climb, 
only  to  sink  again  to  low  flats,  as  about  the  Ouse  at 
Bedford,  this  performance  is  really  as  fine  as  some  of 
the  superb  running  of  the  Great  Northern. 

The  Southern  lines  out  of  London  have  no  long 
distances  to  cover  as  the  Northern,  unless  it  may  be 
the  South- Western  to  Plymouth.  The  South-Western 
to  Bournemouth  and  Exeter,  and  the  mail  trains  on  the 
South-Eastern,  Chatham  and  Dover,  and  the  Brighton 
trains  can  also  show  some  excellent  work  as  regards 
speed. 

The  government  of  a  large  railway  now  has  grown 
to  something  like  the  rule  of  a  small  state.  Sir  George 
Findlay,  the  general  manager  of  the  North- Western 


52  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

Company,  in  his  evidence  before  the  Labour  Com- 
mission in  1892,  deposed  that  the  capital  raised  for 
British  railways  amounted  to  the  vast  sum  of  897 
millions  of  pounds  ;  that  the  receipts  were  80  millions 
yearly,  that  much  more  than  half  of  this  immense 
amount,  namely  43  millions,  yearly  was  paid  in  wages, 
and  that  half-a-million  of  men  directly  or  indirectly 
were  given  employment. 

To  such  enormous  dimensions  has  the  railway  devel- 
oped. And  the  locomotive  engine,  is  the  centre  and 
soul  of  it  all.  Stephenson  got  it,  so  to  speak,  on  its 
right  lines  of  working,  and  it  has  run  along  them  ever 
since,  until  in  its  great  capacity  for  speed,  its  power  for 
drawing  heavy  loads,  and  its  strength  and  beauty  of 
construction  it  may  fairly  be  called  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world. 


_         _ 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  STEAMSHIP. 


I 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  "  COMET  "  APPEARS. 

F  only  people  could  reach  the  place  easier,  I  could 

do  more  business." 

So  mused  Henry  Bell  of  Glasgow  about  the 

year  18.10.  He  was  an  ingenious  and  enterpris- 
ing man,  and  he  had  established  a  hotel  or  bathing- 
house  at  Helensburgh  on  the  Clyde.  But  he  wanted 
more  visitors,  and  he  puzzled  his  brain  to  discover  how 
he  could  offer  facilities  for  them  to  reach  the  place. 

He  tried  boats,  worked  by  paddles,  propelled  by 
hand ;  but  these  proved  a  failure.  They  had  been  in 
use  years  before,  though  perhaps  he  knew  it  not.  Tra- 
dition says  that  boats  fitted  with  paddle  wheels  and 
worked  by  oxen  in  the  boat,  were  known  to  the 
Egyptians,  but  perhaps  tradition  is  wrong.  The 
Romans  and  the  Chinese  also  are  said  to  have  known 
wheel  boats,  the  wheels  worked  by  men  or  by  animals 
— in  the  case  of  the  Chinese  apparently  by  men  alone. 
A  similar  kind  of  boat  appears  to  have  been  tried  on 
the  Thames  in  the  seventeenth  century ;  but  whether 
Bell  knew  of  these  things  or  not,  his  experiments  of 

53 


54  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

the   same    kind   did   not   answer.      What   was   to   be 
done  ? 

He  determined  to  build  a  steamboat.  At  first  sight 
there  does  not  seem  to  be  much  connection  between 
baths  and  steamboats,  but  apparently  it  was  the 
ownership  of  the  one  which  led  Henry  Bell  to  build 
the  other,  and  to  become  the  first  man  in  Great  Britain 
who  used  a  steamboat  for  what  may  be  called  public 
and  commercial  purposes. 

She  was  a  queer  craft.  Her  funnel  was  bent  and 
was  used  also  as  a  mast,  and  she  poured  forth  quantities 
of  thick  smoke.  But  she  was  successful,  and  laboured 
along  at  the  rate  of  five  miles  an  hour.  Up  and  down 
the  river  she  plied,  and  whatever  else  she  did,  or  did 
not,  she  made  the  good  folk  of  those  days  understand 
that  steam  could  be  applied  to  navigation. 

She  was  called  the  Comet,  not  because,  even  in  the 
opinion  of  her  owner,  she  resembled  a  blazing  meteor, 
but  because,  to  use  Bell's  own  words,  "  she  was  built 
and  finished  the  same  year  that  a  comet  appeared  in 
the  north-west  part  of  Scotland." 

"  Whatever  made  you  think  of  starting  a  steamship?" 
we  can  imagine  a  friend  asking  him  as  they  stood  on 
the  bank  and  watched  the  Comet  with  her  paddles 
shaped  like  malt  shovels,  splashing  up  the  water. 

"  Partly  it  was  Miller's  experiments,  and  partly  it  was 
a  letter  from  Fulton.  You  know,  Fulton  has  put  the 
Ctermont  successfully  on  American  waters.  He  had  been 
over  here  talking  with  Symington,  who  had  a  steamer  on 
the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal  you  remember, and  he  wrote  to 
me  also  asking  about  machinery  and  requesting  me  to 
inquire  about  Miller's  boats,  and  send  him  drawings." 

"  And  did  you  ? " 

"  Oh  ay,  I  did ;  but  when  he  replied  afterwards  that 
he  had  made  a  steamboat  from  the  drawings  though 
requiring  some  improvements,  I  thought  how  absurd  it 
was  to  send  my  opinions  to  other  countries  and  not  put 
them  into  practice  in  our  own." 

"  So  you  made  the  Comet  ?  " 


THE  " COMET"  APPEARS. 


55 


"  Well,  I  made  a  number  of  models  before  I  was 
satisfied ;  but  when  I  was  convinced  the  idea  would 
work,  I  made  a  contract  with  John  Wood  &  Co.,  of 
Port-Glasgow,  and  they  built  me  this  boat,  which  I 
fitted  up  with  engine  and  paddles,  as  you  see.  John 
Robertson  actually  set  up  the  engine.  We  will  go 
aboard  presently,  and  you  shall  see  her." 

They  did  so,  and  this  is  something  of  what  they  saw. 


BELL'S  "COMET." 

They  found  a  small  vessel,  forty  feet  long  and  ten  and 
a-half  wide,  and  only  about  twenty-five  tons  burthen. 
The  furnace  was  bricked  round,  and  the  boiler,  instead 
of  being  in  the  centre,  was  seated  on  one  side  of  the 
ship,  with  the  engine  beside  it.  But  the  funnel  was 
bent  and  rose  aloft  in  the  middle,  and  it  answered  the 
purpose  of  a  mast — to  carry  sail. 


56  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

"But  look  at  the  machinery,"  we  can  imagine  Bell 
saying  to  his  friend.  "  We  have  one  single  cylinder, 
you  see.  The  piston  is  attached  to  a  crank  on  an  axle. 
This  axle  carries  a  big  cog  wheel,  which,  working  two 
more  placed  on  the  paddle  axles,  causes  them  to 
revolve." 

"And  the  paddles?" 

"  Well,  you  see,  we  have  now  two  sets  on  each  side, 
and  each  paddle  is  shaped  something  like  a  malt 
shovel ;  but  I  think  I  shall  alter  them,  and  have  paddle 
wheels  soon." 

Bell  carried  out  his  improvement,  and  in  a  short 
time  he  did  adopt  the  better  form  of  paddle  wheel. 
The  improved  Comet,  with  a  new  engine,  attained 
six  or  seven  miles  an  hour.  But  before  this,  Mr. 
Hutchison,  a  brewer,  built  another  boat,  bigger  than  the 
Comet,  and  her  engine  was  of  ten  horse-power,  while 
the  Comet's  was  but  three.  She  travelled  at  an 
average  of  nine  miles  an  hour,  and  her  fares  were  but 
a-third  of  those  charged  by  coach. 

The  news  of  the  steamers  on  the  Clyde  became  noised 
abroad,  and  steamboats  began  to  appear  on  other  British 
rivers.  The  success  of  the  new  venture  became 
assured. 

But  how  had  it  been  brought  about  ?  Bell  had 
referred  to  the  labours  of  others,  and,  indeed,  his  was 
not  the  first  steamboat,  though,  doubtless,  it  was  the 
first  in  Britain  to  ply  for  passengers. 

The  truth  is,  that  as  with  the  locomotive,  several 
minds  were  working  towards  the  same  object.  And 
among  those  early  steamboat  seekers  Patrick  Miller,  of 
Dalswinton,  and  William  Symington,  of  Wanlockhead 
Mines,  are  entitled  to  high  place. 

Indeed,  Symington  is  said  to  have  built  the  "  first 
practically  successful  steamboat"  in  the  world.  She 
was  called  the  Charlotte  Dundas,  and,  in  1802,  she 
tugged  two  barges,  together  of  about  140  tons,  nineteen 
and  a-half  miles,  in  six  hours,  with  a  strong  wind 
against  her. 


THE  "COMET"  APPEAKS.  57 

She  was  built  under  the  patronage  of  Lord  Dundas, 
and  was  intended  to  be  used  for  towing  on  the  Forth 
and  Clyde  Canal,  but  the  proprietors  of  the  canal  would 
not  adopt  this  new  method  of  propulsion ;  they  feared 
that  the  wash  from  the  wheels  would  damage  the  canal 
banks.  So  the  Charlotte  Dundas,  successful  though 
she  was  to  a  certain  extent,  had  to  be  beached  and 
broken  up.  But  Fulton  and  Bell  both  inspected  her, 
and  we  may  infer  that  what  they  saw,  influenced  their 
subsequent  action. 

The  engine  of  the  Charlotte  Dundas  was  of  the 
"  double  action  "  character,  introduced  by  Watt,  and  it 
turned  a  crank  in  the  paddle  wheel  shaft.  The  wheel 
was  placed  at  the  stern  ;  and  boats  with  their  wheels 
thus  placed  are  still  made  for  use  in  particular  places. 
Thus  Messrs.  Yarrow  built  one  in  1892,  to  voyage  in 
the  shallow  rivers  and  lagoons  on  the  west  coast  of 
Africa ;  the  idea  being  that  a  screw-propeller  would 
have  been  likely  to  become  fouled  with  weeds. 

The  Charlotte  Dundas,  we  say,  has  been  regarded  as 
the  "  first  practically  successful  steamboat  ever  built." 
No  doubt  it  was  so,  and  the  credit  must  be  largely  given 
to  William  Symington.  But  his  success,  and  that  which 
crowned  the  labours  of  others,  were  rendered  possible 
by  the  inventions  and  improvements  of  James  Watt. 

Others  had  experimented  before  Symington.  Thus, 
if  royal  records  in  Spain  may  be  trusted,  a  certain 
Blasco  de  Garay  exhibited  a  steam  vessel,  in  1543, 
at  Barcelona.  He  placed  a  large  cauldron  of  boiling 
water  in  the  ship,  and  a  wheel  on  each  side.  Certain 
opinions  concerning  it  were  favourable,  and  Blasco  was 
rewarded;  but  the  invention  was  kept  secret,  and 
appears  to  have  died. 

Then,  in  1655,  the  Marquis  of  Worcester  is  said  to 
have  invented  something  like  navigation  by  steam. 
Later  on,  Jonathan  Hulls  took  out  a  patent  for  a 
paddle  steam  vessel  in  1736;  and  among  others,  in 
England,  France,  and  America,  the  Marquis  de  Jouffroy 
made  a  steamer  which  was  tried  at  Lyons,  in  1783. 


58  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

Then,  in  1787,  Patrick  Miller  is  said  to  have  patented 
paddle  wheels  in  Britain. 

Miller  was  a  retired  gentleman  at  Dalswinton,  in 
Dumfriesshire,  who  took  much  interest  in  mechanical 
affairs.  He  experimented  with  paddle  wheels,  and  he 
also  endeavoured  to  improve  naval  building.  At  first 
the  wheels  appear  to  have  been  turned  by  men,  and 
there  came  a  day  when  a  double  boat  of  Miller's, 
worked  by  a  couple  of  wheels  with  two  men  to  turn 
each  wheel,  sailed  with  a  Custom  House  boat,  and  the 
need  of  more  efficient  motive  power  to  revolve  the 
wheels  became  very  marked.  Then  the  idea  of  steam 
navigation  was  born,  or  re-born. 

There  was  a  gentleman  named  Taylor,  living  with 
Miller,  as  tutor  to  his  sons,  and  he  often  took  part  in 
the  experiments  with  the  boats.  It  is  said  that  Taylor 
suggested  the  use  of  steam  to  propel  the  vessel,  and 
that  Miller  doubted  its  practicability.  However,  he 
decided,  at  length,  to  try  it,  and  in  those  summer  days 
of  1787  the  subject  was  much  talked  of  at  Dalswinton. 
Taylor  mentioned  the  matter  to  Symington,  who,  it 
seems,  was  a  friend  of  his,  but  it  is  not  quite  clear 
whether  he  had  himself  thought  of  this  use  of  steam. 
However,  in  October,  1788,  the  experiment  was  tried  on 
Dalswinton  lake. 

A  boy  was  there  who  afterwards  became  Lord 
Brougham,  and  Robert  Burns  was  also  there ;  and,  no 
doubt,  the  experiment  was  watched  with  much  interest. 

It  appears  to  have  been  successful,  and  next  year  a 
bigger  boat  was  tried  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal, 
again  with  some  success.  But  whether  Mr.  Miller 
thought  he  had  now  spent  enough  money  on  these 
experiments — and  Carlyle  says  Miller  "  spent  his  life 
and  his  estate  on  that  adventure,  and  died  quasi- 
bankrupt  and  broken-hearted" — or  whether  he  was 
satisfied  with  the  results  attained,  he  abandoned  all 
further  effort.  Possibly  he  did  not  see  any  opportunity 
of  utilising  the  invention  further.  At  all  events,  the 
development  of  the  steamboat  made  practically  no  pro- 


THE   "COMET       APPEARS. 


59 


gress   until    Symington   commenced    his    experiments 
under  Lord  Dundas. 

Russell  is  of  opinion  that  the  invention  of  steam 
navigation  was  the  joint  production  of  these  three  men. 
"  The  creation  of  the  steamship,"  says  he,  "  appears  to 
have  been  an  achievement  too  gigantic  for  any  single 
man.  It  was  produced  by  one  of  those  happy  combina- 
tions in  which  individuals  are  but  tools,  working  out 


KOJBEKT   FULTON. 


each  his  part  in  a  great  system,  of  the  whole  of  which  no 
single  one  may  have  comprehended  all  the  workings." 

To  these  three,  however,  must  be  added  Henry  Bell, 
in  Britain,  and  Robert  Fulton,  in  America.  They 
carried  the  great  enterprise  further  on,  to  something 
like  assured  success. 

Miller's  boats  had  two  hulls,  and  the  paddle  wheels 


60  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

revolved  between.  Symington  placed  his  wheel  astern. 
Bell  placed  his  paddles  on  either  side. 

"  Ah,  she  will  work  ! "  we  can  imagine  the  spectators 
saying,  as  they  watched  that  strange  craft,  the  Charlotte 
Dundas  y  with  her  double  rudder,  tugging  along  her 
barges. 

"  Ay,  she  will  work,  but  the  canal  folk  won't  let  her ; 
they  think  the  wash  from  the  wheels  will  wear  away 
the  bank ! " 

"Then  I  will  take  the  idea  where  it  won't  be  so 
hindered,"  said  another.  "  We  are  not  afraid  of  our  river 
banks  in  America." 

That  man,  whom  we  imagine  said  this,  and  who 
appears,  without  doubt,  to  have  inspected  the  Charlotte 
Dundas,  was  Robert  Fulton,  who,  with  his  companion, 
Livingstone,  claim  to  have  invented  steamboats  in  the 
United  States. 

This,  then,  in  brief,  seems  to  be  the  story.  While 
bearing  in  mind  the  efforts  of  others,  yet  it  would  seem 
that  Miller,  Taylor,  and  Symington  invented  steam 
navigation,  utilising  improvements  of  Watt  on  the 
steam  engine ;  but  Fulton,  in  America,  and  Bell,  in 
Britain,  seeing  something  of  these  experiments,  devel- 
oped them  to  assured  success.  '  T 

What  were  Fulton's  adventures  ? 


CHAPTER   II. 

TO   THE   NARROW   SEAS. 

I    SHOULD   not   like  to   risk    my  money  in   the 
thing." 
"  Nor  I,  she  will  never  pay." 
"  I  reckon  she  will  burst  up  before  the  day  is 
over." 

"  Well,  she  is  about  to  start  now." 


TO    THE    NARROW    SEAS.  61 

A  few  minutes  more,  and  the  smiles  on  the  faces  of 
the  speakers  changed  to  expressions  of  astonishment. 
The  boat  was  actually  "  walking  the  waters  like  a  thing 
of  life,"  and  gathering  speed  as  she  drew  away  from  the 
pier. 

"Why,  stranger,  this  thing's  going  to  succeed." 

"  It  does  look  so." 

Still  the  speakers  gazed,  and  still  the  vessel  continued 
to  glide  along.  And  shouts  and  applause  burst  from 
the  thronging  crowd  around.  The  "thing"  was  suc- 
ceeding indeed. 

They  were  watching  the  trial  trip  of  the  first  prac- 
tically successful  steamboat  in  America,  the  Clermont. 
Fulton  had  been  successful,  and  together  with  his 
companion,  Livingstone — after  whose  residence  the 
vessel  was  named — had  launched  a  satisfactory  steamer 
in  America,  five  years  before  the  Comet  appeared  in 
Britain.  Yet  the  Clermonfs  engines  were  made  in 
Britain  by  Boulton  &  Watt,  and  men  from  their  works 
helped  in  mounting  the  machinery. 

Golden,  Fulton's  biographer,  describing  this  trial 
trip,  says : — 

"  The  minds  of  the  most  incredulous  were  changed 
in  a  few  minutes — before  the  boat  had  made  the  pro- 
gress of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  the  greatest  unbeliever 
must  have  been  converted.  The  man  who,  while  he 
looked  on  the  expensive  machine,  thanked  his  stars 
that  he  had  more  wisdom  than  to  waste  his  money  on 
such  idle  schemes,  changed  the  expression  of  his  features 
as  the  boat  moved  from  the  wharf  and  gained  her 
speed ;  his  complacent  smile  gradually  stiffened  into  an 
expression  of  wonder;  the  jeers  of  the  ignorant,  who 
had  neither  sense  nor  feeling  enough  to  repress  their 
contemptuous  ridicule  and  rude  jokes,  were  silenced  for 
the  moment  by  a  vulgar  astonishment,  which  deprived 
them  of  the  power  of  utterance,  till  the  triumph  of 
genius  extorted  from  the  incredulous  multitude  which 
crowded  the  shores  shouts  and  acclamations  of  congratu- 
lations and  applause." 


62  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

The  scene  of  the  vessel's  exploit  was  the  famous 
river  Hudson,  and  she  came  to  make  several  trips 
between  New  York  and  Albany  as  a  passenger  boat. 
She  performed  the  journey  from  Albany  to  New  York 
in  thirty-two  hours,  and  back  in  thirty  hours ;  her 
average  speed  being  five  miles  an  hour.  Steamers  now 
perform  the  passage  in  about  eight  hours. 

The  boat  caused  great  astonishment  at  the  time. 
Golden  says  she  was  described  by  some  who  saw  her 
but  indistinctly  at  night  as  "  a  monster  moving  on  the 
water,  defying  the  winds  and  tide,  and  breathing  flames 
and  smoke."  He  states  : — "  She  had  the  most  terrific 
appearance  from  other  vessels  which  were  navigating 
the  river  when  she  was  making  her  passage.  The  first 
steamboats,  as  others  yet  do,  used  dry  pine- wood  for 
fuel,  which  sends  forth  a  column  of  ignited  vapour, 
many  feet  above  the  flue,  and  whenever  the  fire  is 
stirred  a  galaxy  of  sparks  fly  off,  which,  in  the  night, 
have  an  airy,  brilliant,  and  beautiful  appearance.  This 
uncommon  light  first  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
crews  of  other  vessels.  Notwithstanding  the  wind  and 
tide  were  adverse  to  its  approach,  they  saw,  with 
astonishment,  that  it  was  rapidly  coming  towards  them ; 
and  when  it  came  so  near  that  the  noise  of  the  machin- 
ery and  the  paddles  was  heard,  the  crews  in  some 
instances  shrunk  beneath  their  decks  from  the  terrific 
sight ;  and  others  left  their  vessels  to  go  on  shore ; 
while  others,  again,  prostrated  themselves  and  besought 
Providence  to  protect  them  from  the  approach  of  the 
horrible  monster  which  was  marching  on  the  tides,  and 
lighting  its  path  by  the  fires  which  it  vomited." 

Compare  this  with  the  stately  passenger  boats  of  the 
end  of  the  century,  gliding  along  four  or  five  times  as 
fast,  but  with  little  noise  and  less  smoke,  and  beaming 
forth  brilliant  electric  light  from  every  saloon  window. 

The  Clermont  was  133  feet  long,  18  feet  wide,  and 
7  feet  deep.  The  cylinder  of  her  engine  was  24  inches 
in  diameter,  and  her  piston  had  a  stroke  of  four  feet ; 
her  paddle  wheels  were  at  first  too  large,  or  at  all 


TO    THE    NARROW    SEAS.  63 

events  dipped  too  deeply  in  the  water.  When  improved 
they  appear  to  have  been  fifteen  feet  in  diameter.  Her 
engines  were  18  horse-power,  and  the  tonnage  was  but 
160. 

Fulton  was  busily  engaged  in  constructing  steam 
vessels  until  he  died  in  18.15.  One  of  his  efforts  was 
the  building  of  a  steam  war  vessel ;  and  so  greatly  were 
his  efforts  esteemed  that  both  Houses  of  the  United 
States  Legislature  testified  their  respect  for  him  by 
wearing  mourning  apparel  on  the  occasion  of  his  death. 

His  work  was  developed  by  Mr.  R.  L.  Stevens,  whose 
father,  indeed,  had  a  steamer  ready,  only  a  few  weeks 
after  the  success  of  the  Clermont.  Mr.  R.  L.  Stevens 
came  to  grasp  the  idea  that  the  form  of  the  hull  of 
steamships  could  be  much  improved  by  giving  them 
fine  lines  instead  of  full  round  bows.  Stevens,  it  is 
said,  was  able  to  obtain  a  speed  of  thirteen  miles  an 
hour ;  and  he  also,  it  is  stated,  used  a  different  form  of 
engine  from  that  adopted  by  Fulton. 

The  engines  of  those  early  steamboats  were,  as  a 
rule,  a  sort  of  beam  engine.  The  famous  Comet  was 
engined  in  that  manner.  John  Robertson,  who  actually 
set  up  the  Comet's  engines,  lived  to  place  them  subse- 
quently in  South  Kensington  Museum.  A  beam,  or 
lever,  which  worked  on  a  pivot  at  its  centre,  was 
placed  between  the  piston  on  one  side,  and  the  connect- 
ing rod — which  was  fastened  to  the  crank — on  the 
other.  Thus,  one  end  of  the  beam,  or  lever,  was 
attached  to  the  piston  rod,  and  the  other  to  the  end  of 
the  connecting  rod  which  drove  the  crank  and  the 
wheel. 

A  development  apparently  of  this  beam- engine 
arrangement  was  the  side-lever  engine — a  form  of 
which  marine  engineers  were  also  fond.  The  side 
lever  seems,  in  fact,  to  have  been  a  sort  of  double  beam 
engine.  The  cylinder  was  placed  upright,  and  a  cross- 
piece  was  fixed  to  the  end  of  the  piston  rod.  From 
either  end  of  this  cross-piece  a  rod  was  connected  with 
a  beam  or  lever  on  either  side  of  the  machinery  below. 


64  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

These  levers  worked  on  pivots  at  their  centres,  and 
their  other  ends  were  joined  by  a  cross-piece  united  by 
a  rod  to  the  crank-shaft  above.  The  idea  in  the  side- 
lever  engines  appears  to  have  been  to  obtain  equal 
strength  on  both  sides  for  each  paddle  wheel.  Marine 
engineers  did  not  apparently  at  first  grasp  the  idea  of 
a  direct-acting  engine — that  is,  simply  one  connecting- 
rod  between  the  piston  and  the  crank  which  pulled 
round  the  wheel ;  perhaps  the  sizes  and  arrangements 
of  those  early  steamboats  did  not  permit  of  this.  But 
in  the  development  of  the  locomotive,  the  direct-acting 
engine  did  not  appear  at  once.  In  any  case,  even  the 
first  vessels  of  the  celebrated  Cunard  Line  were  of  the 
cumbrous  side-lever  type. 

Now,  when  Fulton  had  made  his  Clermont  in  1807, 
and  Bell  had  put  his  Comet  on  the  Clyde,  some  of  the 
English  speaking  people  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic 
began,  we  say,  to  see  that  there  was  a  future  before  the 
new  invention.  In  1809,  the  Accommodation  ploughed 
the  waters  of  the  great  St.  Lawrence,  and  two  years 
later  a  steamer  startled  the  dwellers  on  the  mighty 
Mississippi.  The  Elizabeth  also  followed  the  Comet  on 
the  Clyde  in  1813. 

She  was  bigger  than  her  predecessor,  but  only  of 
thirty-three  tons ;  she  was  fifty-eight  feet  long,  and  her 
engine  of  ten  horse-power.  She  was  built  by  the 
constructors  of  the  Comet,  Wood  &  Company,  of  Port- 
Glasgow,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Thompson,  who  had 
been  connected  with  some  of  Bell's  experiments. 

The  next  step  was  the  introduction  of  steamers  on 
the  Thames.  All  things  gravitate  to  London,  steam- 
boats among  the  rest.  Passing  by  some  experiments, 
in  which  the  names  of  a  Mr.  Dawson  and  a  Mr. 
Lawrence  appear,  we  find  that  George  Dodd  brought 
a  steamboat  from  the  Clyde  to  the  Thames  by  sea, 
using  both  sails  and  steam,  about  the  year  1813  or 
1814.  It  is  said  that  Dawson  had  a  steamer  plying 
between  London  and  Gravesend  in  1813,  and  that 
Lawrence,  of  Bristol,  after  using  a  steamer  on  the 


TO    THE    NARROW    SEAS.  65 

Severn  brought  her  through  the  canals  to  the  Thames, 
but  was  obliged  to  take  her  back  because  of  the 
antagonism  of  the  watermen.  It  is  said  also  that 
the  Marjorie,  built  by  William  Denny,  of  Dumbarton, 
was  brought  to  the  Thames  about  1815  in  six  days 
from  Grangemouth,  having  been  purchased  by  some 
London  merchants. 

However  this  may  be,  the  name  of  George  Dodd 
should  take  a  high  place,  perhaps  next  to  that  of 
Bell,  for  the  enterprise  and  effort  he  showed  in  seeking 
to  establish  steam  vessels.  His  sphere  was  chiefly  the 
Thames,  though  he  appears  to  have  been  also  animated 
with  the  idea  of  using  them  upon  the  sea.  The  vessel 
he  brought  round  from  the  Clyde  was  named  first  the 
Glasgow  and  afterwards  the  Thames,  and  was  of  about 
seventy-five  tons,  with  nine  feet  paddle-wheels,  and 
some  fourteen  or  sixteen  horse-power.  He  had  some 
rough  weather  in  the  Irish  Sea,  and  an  account  of  the 
voyage  is  given  in  his  book  on  steamboats.  This,  pre- 
sumably in  1813,  was  the  first  steamship  voyage  at  sea, 
as  distinguished  from  steamers'  voyages  on  rivers. 

Such  great  progress  had  the  introduction  of  steam- 
boats made  in  1818,  that  according  to  Dodd  there  were 
in  that  year  eighteen  on  the  Clyde,  two  on  the  Tay, 
two  at  Dundee,  two  at  Cork,  two  on  the  Tyne,  two  on 
the  Trent,  two  on  the  Mersey,  four  on  the  Humber, 
three  on  the  Yare,  one  on  the  Avon,  the  Severn,  the 
Orwell,  six  on  the  Forth,  and  actually  two  intended  to 
run  from  Dublin  to  Holyhead.  There  may  have  been 
more  than  these,  but  they  seem  at  all  events  to  be  the 
chief.  Apparently  there  were,  or  had  been,  several  on 
the  Thames.  Two,  the  London  and  the  Richmond, 
according  to  Dodd's  book,  were  plying  between  London 
and  Twickenham,  and  had  carried  10,000  persons  in 
four  months.  No  wonder  the  watermen  were  alarmed. 

Other  vessels  also  had  appeared  on  the  royal  river. 
The  Majestic  even  had  got  as  far  as  Margate,  and  had 
ventured  across  to  Calais.  The  Regent  had  been 
burned  off  Whitstable,  and  the  Caledonia,  which  had 

E 


66  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

actually  two  engines,  had  steamed  across  to  Flushing. 
Dodd  further  designed  a  vessel  which  seems  to  have 
gone  to  Margate  in  about  seven  and  a-half  hours, 
speeding  along  at  about  ten  or  eleven  miles  an  hour. 
No  wonder  that  Bell  could  say — "  I  will  venture  to 
affirm  that  history  does  not  afford  an  instance  of  such 
rapid  improvement  in  commerce  and  civilisation  as 
that  which  will  be  effected  by  steam-vessels."  The 
Richmond  was  a  little  boat  of  50  tons,  and  17  indicated 
horse-power.  She  was  engined  by  Messrs.  Maudslay  & 
Field,  of  London,  and  presumably  was  the  first  steamer 
engined  on  the  Thames.  She  ran  from  London  to 
Richmond.  In  the  next  year  Messrs.  Maudslay  engined 
the  Regent  of  112  tons  and  42  indicated  horse-power, 
and  intended  to  ply  between  London  and  Margate ; 
while,  in  1817,  this  famous  firm  engined  three  vessels, 
including  the  Quebec  of  500  tons  and  100  indicated 
horse-power,  intended  for  Quebec  and  Montreal.  Since 
then  they  have  engined  hundreds  of  vessels,  including 
screw  propeller  ironclads  of  20,000  horse-power. 

Dodd,  alas,  though  he  worked  so  hard  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  steamship,  does  not  seem  to  have  pro- 
fited by  his  labour.  Like  some  other  ingenious  men  he 
unhappily  fell  into  poverty. 

The  next  in  order  of  succession,  who  apparently 
became  the  most  prominent  and  among  the  'most 
useful  in  the  story  of  the  steamship,  was  David  Napier. 
Russell  avers  that  from  1818  to  about  1830  he  "  effected 
more  for  the  improvement  of  steam  navigation  than 
any  other  man."  David  Napier  ran  the  Rob  Roy,  a 
steamer  of  90  tons  and  30  horse-power,  fitted  with 
his  own  engines,  between  Greenock  and  Belfast.  It 
appears  that  at  one  of  the  worst  seasons  he  sailed 
in  a  vessel  plying  between  the  two  ports, — sometimes 
taking  a  week  to  cover  the  journey,  afterwards  made  in 
nine  hours  by  steam, — and  eagerly  watched  the  effect 
of  the  heaving  waves  on  the  ship  as  she  was  tossed 
by  the  storm.  Then,  assured  that  there  was  no  over- 
whelming difficulty  for  steamers,  he  started  the  Rob 


TO    THE    NARROW    SEAS.  67 

Roy.  He  also  experimented  upon  the  best  shape 
of  hull,  and,  without  apparently  any  communication 
with  Stevens  across  the  Atlantic,  came  to  adopt  a 
wedge-shaped  bow,  instead  of  a  rounded  fore  front 
as  common  in  sailing  ships. 

In  1819  he  put  the  Talbot  on  the  Channel  between 
Dublin  and  Holyhead.  She  was  built  by  Wood  & 
Company,  and  was  one  of  the  most  perfect  vessels 
of  the  kind  then  constructed.  She  had  two  engines 
of  60  horse-power  combined,  and  was  150  tons  burthen. 
She  was  followed  by  the  Ivanhoe,  and  in  1821  steam- 
vessels  were  regularly  used  to  carry  the  mails. 

Gradually  the  length  of  vessels  increased  without  the 
beam  being  proportionately  widened.  The  builders  of 
those  early  boats  did  not  at  first  realise  the  practica- 
bility and  usefulness  of  altering  the  form  of  vessels  for 
steamers.  David  Napier  altered  the  bow,  and  gradually 
the  vessels  were  lengthened.  The  idea  came  gradually 
to  be  grasped  that  as  a  steamer  was  forced  forward 
along  the  line  of  its  keel,  and  not  by  a  power  exerted 
upon  it  from  without  and  in  various  quarters,  its  form 
might  advantageously  be  changed.  Moreover,  it  would 
seem  that  the  best  form  for  steamers  is  also  the  best  for 
fast  sailers.  Russell  is  of  opinion  "  that  the  fastest 
schooners,  cutters,  smugglers,  yachts,  and  slavers" 
approach  more  nearly  to  the  form  of  the  best  steamers 
than  any  other  class  of  sailing  vessels.  However  this 
may  be,  the  shape  of  a  steamer  as  well  as  its  machinery 
has  much  to  do  with  its  speed,  and  David  Napier 
appears  to  have  contributed  largely  to  these  results  in 
Britain. 

Steamers  had  now  sped  out  from  the  rivers  into  the 
narrow  seas  around  Great  Britain.  The  next  step 
would  be  into  the  wide  and  open  ocean.  Who  would 
venture  to  take  it  ? 


68  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

CHAPTER  III. 

ON   THE    OPEN   OCEAN. 

WHY  should  not  the  Great  Western  end  at  New 
York? 
That   was    Brunei's   idea,   and   it    had    an 
immense  effect  on  the  establishment  of  trans- 
atlantic steamships. 

Brunei  was  the  engineer  of  the  Great  Western  Rail- 
way, and  he  audaciously  desired  his  line  to  end,  not  at 
Bristol  or  Penzance,  but,  conquering  the  sea,  he  wished 
to  plant  his  foot  in  the  Empire  city  itself. 

Still  he  was  not  the  first,  nor  the  only  one,  in  the 
field.  To  the  Savannah  belongs  the  honour  of  being 
the  first  steamship  to  cross  the  Atlantic.  Yet  she  was 
not  altogether  a  steamship. 

Mr.  Scarborough,  of  Savannah — a  port  of  the  state 
of  Georgia — purchased  a  sailing  ship  of  about  300  tons 
and  100  feet  long,  launched  her  at  New  York  in  1818, 
intending  her  to  ply  between  the  two  places,  and  had 
her  fitted  with  machinery. 

Why  he  changed  his  mind  and  sent  her  to  Europe, 
we  cannot  say.  Apparently  he  could  not  trust  to  steam 
alone,  for  the  paddle  wheels  were  so  constructed  that 
they  could  be  folded  up  on  deck  when  not  in  use,  and 
the  shaft  also  was  jointed  for  that  purpose.  Then  in 
the  following  May  she  started  forth  for  Liverpool — the 
precursor  of  a  mighty  fleet  of  magnificent  ships  which 
have  followed  since. 

She  reached  the  Mersey"  in  twenty-five  days — vessels 
now  perform  the  journey  in  about  six.  But  she  used 
steam  on  only  eighteen  days  out  of  the  twenty-five. 
Several  times  during  the  journey  the  paddle  wheels 
were  taken  on  deck,  this  operation  occupying  about 
half-an-hour.  Possibly  this  was  done  when  the  wind 
was  very  favourable  for  sails,  and  so  saved  the  fuel, 
which  was  pitch-pine. 


ON    THE    OPEN    OCEAN.  69 

Apparently  Mr.  Scarborough  was  not  satisfied  with 
the  venture,  for,  after  failing  to  sell  the  ship  in  Russia, 
whither  she  voyaged,  she  touched  at  different  ports  and 
returned  home.  The  machinery  was  taken  out,  and  she 
winged  her  way  henceforth  by  sails  alone. 

England  next  did  something  of  the  same  kind.  The 
Falcon  steam  yacht,  a  little  vessel  of  175  tons,  voyaged 
to  India  in  1824,  mostly,  however,  by  the  power  of  sails. 
In  the  next  year  the  Enterprise,  engined  by  Messrs. 
Maudslay  &  Field,  made  the  passage  by  steam  to  Cal- 
cutta from  London  in  the  net  time  of  103  days — ten 
being  used  in  stoppages,  and  the  entire  voyage  thus 
occupying  113  days.  She  was  a  vessel  of  500  tons,  122 
feet  keel,  and  27  feet  broad,  while  her  engines  were 
of  240  indicated  power.  Then  the  Royal  William, 
hailing  from  Quebec,  made  the  transatlantic  passage  in 
1831,  principally  by  steam,  in  twenty-six  days.  In 

1835  Messrs.  Willcox  &  Anderson  began  to  run  steam- 
ships to  Peninsular  ports — an  undertaking  which  blos- 
somed out  afterwards  into  the  celebrated   Peninsular 
and  Oriental  Steamship  Company. 

Then  in  1838  two  steamships,  the  Sirius  and  the 
Great  Western,  crossed  the  Atlantic,  the  latter  in  four- 
teen and  a-half  days.  Brunei  had  had  his  wish,  and  in 

1836  he   had   formed  the  Great  Western  Steamship 
Company,  and  the  vessel  of  the  same  name  had  been 
commenced.      Others  also  were  in  the  field,  notably 
Messrs.  Laird  of  Birkenhead,  and  the  British  and  Ameri- 
can Steam  Navigation  Company  was  founded.      The 
Sirius,  which  had  been  built  on  the  Thames,  was  pur- 
chased by  them  and  prepared  for  her  voyage. 

The  prime  mover  in  this  matter  is  said  to  have  been 
Mr.  Macgregor  Laird.  He  had  witnessed  the  work 
of  steamships  in  the  Niger  Expedition  of  1832-33  both 
on  sea  and  river,  and  from  the  time  of  his  return  he 
advocated  the  establishment  of  steamships  between 
Great  Britain  and  America. 

The  Sirius  left  Cork  on  the  5th  of  April,  and  arrived 
at  New  York  eighteen  days  afterwards.  She  carried 


70  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

seven  passengers,  and  close  at  her  heels  followed  Brunei's 
Great  Western,  which  had  left  Bristol  three  days  later. 
The  two  ships  were  received  with  loud  acclaim,  a  vast 
crowd  of  spectators  beholding  their  arrival.  The  vessels 
proved  beyond  possibility  of  doubt  that  the  transatlantic 
voyage  by  steamships  was  possible,  and,  at  a  stroke,  the 
duration  of  the  passage  was  reduced  by  almost  one-half. 
It  has  since  been  reduced  to  less  than  a  quarter. 

The  Sirius  made  on  an  average  about  161  miles 
a-day,  or  slightly  less  than  seven  miles  an  hour.  She 
apparently,  however,  had  been  originally  built  for  ply- 
ing between  London  and  Cork ;  while  the  Great  Western, 
which  had  presumably  been  especially  built  for  the 
transatlantic  traffic,  was  both  larger  and  more  powerful. 
Her  average  speed  was  about  208  miles  a-day,  that  is 
between  eight  and  nine  miles  an  hour  ;  while  returning, 
the  speed  was  a  little  better,  averaging  about  213  miles 
per  day.  The  return  voyage  of  the  Sirius  was  also 
better  than  her  outward  passage. 

The  engines  of  the  Great  Western  were  side-lever, 
and  were  built  by  Messrs.  Maudslay  &  Field,  of  London. 
The  cylinders  were  73J  inches  diameter,  and  the  pistons 
had  a  big  stroke  of  seven  feet.  The  wheels'  diameter 
was  no  less  than  28f  feet,  while  the  steam  was  generated 
in  four  boilers.  Her  tonnage  was  1340 — the  largest 
Maudslay's  had  yet  engined,  with  750  indicated  horse- 
power. She  voyaged  many  times  across  the  Atlantic,  her 
fastest  eastward  passage  being  12  days,  7J  hours.  The 
variation  in  her  coal  consumption  was  very  remarkable. 
Thus,  on  her  first  voyage  655  tons  were  burnt,  but  on 
her  return  journey  she  consumed  263  tons  less.  No 
doubt  this  was  owing  to  the  greater  use  she  was  able  to 
make  of  the  wind. 

The  proprietors  of  the  two  vessels  soon  began  to 
build  others.  The  owners  of  the  Great  Western  laid 
down  the  Great  Britain,  and  the  proprietors  of  the 
Sirius  began  the  British  Queen.  She  had  paddle 
wheels  of  31  feet  diameter,  and  her  piston  stroke  was 
the  same  as  the  Great  Western,  7  feet.  Her  engines 


ON    THE    OPEN    OCEAN.  71 

were  500  horse-power,  and  her  cylinders  77  J  inches  in 
diameter.  She  was  275  feet  long,  40  feet  wide,  and  27 
feet  deep.  From  Portsmouth  to  New  York  she  crossed 
in  14  days,  8  hours. 

Satisfactory  as  these  results  were,  the  pecuniary 
returns  unfortunately  were  not  so  favourable.  The 
Great  Western,  it  is  said,  continued  running  at  a  loss, 
but  others  were  withdrawn.  Something  seemed  want- 
ing to  make  the  venture  a  commercial  success.  What 
was  it  ? 

Meantime  Willcox  &  Anderson's  steamers  plied  with 
remarkable  regularity  to  the  Peninsula,  and  this  regu- 
larity aroused  some  attention.  The  Government  of  the 
day  applied  to  the  proprietors  to  submit  a  scheme  for 
carrying  the  mails.  It  seems  that  previously  Willcox 
&  Anderson  had  proposed  this,  but  it  had  come  to 
nothing.  The  end  of  the  matter  was,  however,  that 
the  first  mail  contract  was  signed  with  them,  the  22nd 
of  August,  1837.  To  carry  out  their  bargain,  Captain 
Richard  Bourne  and  Messrs.  Willcox  &  Anderson 
founded  the  Peninsula  Company,  and  three  years  later 
it  was  expanded  to  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Steam 
Navigation  Company — popularly  known  as  the  P.  &  O. 
— and  incorporated  by  Royal  Charter.  The  mail  ser- 
vice was  the  keystone  of  the  enterprise. 

The  first  steamer,  built  in  1829,  was  the  William 
Faivcett,  a  small  vessel  of  206  gross  tonnage,  and  but 
60  horse-power.  In  1842  the  proprietors  owned  the 
Hindostan,  of  2017  gross  tonnage,  and  520  horse-power. 
She  was  a  paddle-wheel  vessel,  and  opened  the  Indian 
Mail  Service.  The  commencement  of  this  service 
marks  another  stage  in  the  history  of  steam  navigation. 
About  fifty  years  later  the  Company  owned  about  half- 
a-hundred  ships,  two  being  of  8000  horse-power  and 
7000  tonnage. 

Some  two  years  after  the  Hindostan  first  steamed 
to  India,  Brunei's  Great  Britain  was  finished.  She 
was  a  very  remarkable  vessel,  and  the  wonder  of  her 
time.  In  the  first  place,  she  was  built  of  iron,  and, 


72  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

secondly,  she  was  propelled  by  a  screw,  though  at  first 
it  was  intended  that  she  should  have  paddle-wheels, 
and  the  engines  for  these  wheels  had  been  partly 
made. 

Barges  and  light  vessels  had  been  built  of  iron  since 
about  1790,  or  earlier,  and  the  Lairds  of  Birkenheacl, 
among  others,  had  built  an  iron  vessel  about  1829. 
It  is  said  that  the  Aglaia  was  the  first  iron  steamer 
built  on  the  Clyde  in  1832.  As  for  the  screw-propeller, 
John  Ericsson  was  successful  with  the  Francis  B. 
Ogden  in  1836,  and  three  years  later  Sir  Francis 
Pettit  Smith  clearly  showed,  in  the  vessel  appro- 
priately called  the  Archimedes,  the  value  and  the 
feasibility  of  the  new  system. 

Brunei,  therefore,  ever  open  to  improvements,  com- 
bined these  two  alterations  in  the  Great  Britain.  It 
was  in  1839,  probably  after  Sir  Pettit  Smith's  success, 
that  the  change  was  made  as  regards  the  screw  for 
this  vessel,  though  the  paddle-wheel  engines  had  been 
begun.  The  superiority  of  the  screw  propeller  over 
the  paddle-wheels  are  said  to  be  these : — the  engines 
occupy  less  room,  and  are  lighter — two  very  important 
considerations.  Then  there  is  greater  wear  and  tear  on 
paddle-wheels,  and  consequently  the  screwvessels  are  less 
expensive.  But  most  important  of  all,  the  screw  being 
deep  in  the  water,  the  vessel  is  much  more  suitable  for 
ocean  traffic.  In  the  heaving  billows  of  the  sea  one 
wheel  may  be  buried  deep  on  one  side  of  the  ship,  and 
the  other  whirling  round  high  in  the  air,  and  not  pro- 
pelling the  vessel ;  whereas  the  screw,  being  always 
immersed,  except  possibly  in  severe  pitching,  is  more 
constantly  efficient  for  the  whole  of  the  vessel. 

Nevertheless,  paddle-boats  have  their  advantages. 
They  need  less  water  to  work  in,  are  started  more 
easily,  and  stopped  sooner.  Further,  it  is  said  they 
are  less  liable  to  cause  sea-sickness,  as  they  do  not  roll 
so  much.  In  a  word,  the  difference  seerns  to  be  this : 
paddle  vessels  are  better  suited  as  passenger  boats  on 
the  shallower  waters ;  screw  vessels  for  deep  sea  and 


ON    THE    OPEN    OCEAN.  73 

long  distance  voyages,  though  whether  the  adoption  of 
twin-screws, — which  it  appears  need  not  be  immersed 
so  deeply  in  the  water  as  one  screw, — will  bring  screw 
vessels  into  use  on  shallower  waters  remains  to  be 
seen. 

But  when  the  Great  Britain  was  being  built  the 
greater  efficiency  of  the  screw-propeller  for  ocean  voyages 
was  not  widely  understood.  She  was  a  fine  vessel, 
over  820  feet  long,  51  feet  wide,  and  32  J  feet  deep. 
Her  screw  was  successful ;  but  on  her  fourth  voyage 
to  New  York  she  became  stranded  in  Dundrum  Bay, 
and  lay  aground  for  nearly  a  year. 

Incidentally,  however,  this  catastrophe  seems  to  have 
given  great  impetus  to  iron  shipbuilding;  for  after 
being  floated,  she  was  discovered  to  have  suffered  but 
comparatively  slight  damage.  She  was  seen  in  dock 
by  many  persons  interested  in  shipping,  and  they  be- 
came impressed  with  the  practicability  and  usefulness 
of  iron  for  shipbuilding. 

Unfortunate  Great  Britain  !  She  passed  through 
many  vicissitudes.  Her  owners  got  into  difficulties, 
and  after  some  alterations,  she  ran  to  Australia,  and 
at  length  she  wheezed  her  way  to  the  Falkland  Islands, 
where,  it  is  said,  she  served  as  a  hulk — a  sorry  end  to 
a  successful  beginning. 

The  engines  of  the  early  screw  vessels  appear  to  have 
very  much  resembled  those  for  paddle-wheels  ships. 
Thus  the  Rattler,  engined  by  Messrs.  Maudslay  for 
the  Admiralty  about  the  year  1841,  had  upright 
cylinders,  with  a  crank  shaft  overhead  and  wheels  to 
give  speed  to  the  screw. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  commercial  difficulty 
of  transatlantic  steam  traffic  was  being  solved.  The 
something  lacking  had  been  supplied.  What  was  it  ? 


74  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE     OCEAN     RACE. 

"  r  I  ^HIS  is  the  very  opportunity  I  have  been  want- 


i 


mg  ! 


The  speaker  was  looking  at  a  paper  setting 
forth  that  the  British  Government  were  open 
to  consider  contracts  for  the  carrying  of  the  letters 
by  steamships  between  Great  Britain  and  America. 
Encouraged,  no  doubt,  by  the  success  attending  the 
conveyance  of  the  mails  by  similar  means  to  the  Penin- 
sula, the  Government  were  now  going  farther  afield. 

The  practicability  of  ocean  steam  traffic  had  been 
amply  demonstrated  ;  but  some  of  those  early  steam- 
ships did  not  "  pay,"  and  to  that  test,  after  all,  such 
undertakings  must  come.  Now,  the  man  into  whose 
hands  the  circular  had  fallen  was  of  great  intelligence 
and  remarkable  energy.  He  was  a  merchant  and 
owner  of  ships,  and  agent  for  the  East  India  Com- 
pany at  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia.  His  name  has  since 
become  known  the  wide  world  over.  It  was  Samuel 
Cunard. 

Apparently  he  had  cherished  the  idea  of  establishing 
transatlantic  steam  traffic  for  some  years — since  1830  it 
is  said — and  now,  here  was  the  opportunity.  The 
British  Government  would,  of  course,  give  a  hand- 
some sum  for  carrying  the  mails,  and  that  sum  would 
form  a  backbone  to  the  enterprise. 

Over  came  Cunard  to  London  in  1838.  Mr.  Melvill, 
the  secretary  of  the  East  India  Company,  gave  him 
a  letter  of  introduction  to  Mr.  Robert  Napier,  the 
eminent  engineer  at  Glasgow.  Thither  then  went  the 
indomitable  merchant,  and  was  heartily  welcomed. 
Napier  knew  Mr.  George  Burns,  who  was  partner  with 
Mr.  David  Maclver  in  a  coasting  trade,  and  the  upshot 
of  the  matter  was  that  capital  of  considerably  over 


THE    OCEAN    RACE.  75 

a  quarter  of  a  million  (£270,000)  was  subscribed 
through  Mr.  Burns's  influence. 

The  first  great  step  thus  taken,  Mr.  Cunard  made 
a  good  offer  to  the  Government,  and  although  another 
offer  was  made  by  the  owners  of  the  Great  Western, 
Cunard  got  the  contract,  the  tender  being  regarded  as 
much  more  favourable.  The  subsidy  was  eventually 
£81,000  per  annum.  The  contract  was  for  seven  years, 
and  was  signed  by  the  three  gentlemen  mentioned — 
Cunard,  Burns,  and  Maclver. 

These  three  divided  the  labour.  Cunard  ruled  at 
London,  Maclver  at  Liverpool,  and  Burns  at  Glasgow. 
Napier  was  to  engine  the  new  vessels.  It  was  decided 
that  their  names  were  all  to  end  in  "  ia,"  and  nearly 
every  one  of  the  now  historic  fleet  has  rejoiced  in 
a  title  of  that  ending.  There  is  a  sailor's  superstition 
that  it  is  unlucky  if  the  vessels  of  a  fleet  are  not  named 
with  some  uniformity  ;  but  we  doubt  if  the  superstition 
influenced  the  Cunard  Company.  In  any  case,  they 
broke  another  superstition  by  starting  their  first  ship 
on  a  Friday  !  She  was  a  mail  ship,  and  she  had  to  go. 
The  Cunard  Company  meant  business. 

But  about  their  fleet.  Their  first  order  was  for  four 
vessels,  all  of  about  the  same  size  and  power.  The 
Britannia  was  the  first,  and  her  sisters  were  the 
Caledonia,  the  Columbia,  and  the  Acadia.  They 
were  paddle  steamers,  the  value  of  the  screw  not 
having  then  been  clearly  and  widely  demonstrated, 
all  of  them  about  207  feet  long,  35J  feet  broad, 
22 J  feet  deep,  and  1154  tons  burthen.  The  engines 
— side-lever,  of  course,  in  those  days — were  of  740 
horse-power.  The  boilers  had  return-flues,  and  were 
heated  by  a  dozen  furnaces. 

They  would  look  now  quite  out  of  fashion,  like  a 
lady's  dress  of  a  past  age.  They  appeared  something 
like  sailing  ships,  with  the  straight  funnels  added. 

The  Britannia  began  the  service  by  starting  from 
Liverpool  on  the  4th  of  July,  1840,  and,  attaining  a 
speed  of  about  8J  knots  per  hour,  she  made  the  passage 


76  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

to  Halifax  in  12  days,  10  hours,  and  returned  in  10 
days.  Her  average  consumption  of  fuel  was  about 
thirty-eight  tons  daily. 

The  Bostonians  gave  the  Britannia  quite  an  ovation. 
A  grand  banquet,  followed  by  speeches,  celebrated  the 
great  occasion.  But  they  gave  even  more  practical 
appreciation  of  their  favour  subsequently,  for  when,  in 
the  winter  season,  the  vessel  became  ice-bound  in  the 
harbour,  they  cut  a  seven-mile  passage  for  her  through 
the  ice,  at  their  own  cost. 

The  Cunarders  were  successful,  and  the  conveyance 
of  the  mails  by  steamship  became  quite  established. 
The  white-winged  clipper  ships  fought  hard  against  the 
Cunarders,  but  they  had  to  yield.  Three  years  later 
the  Company  put  another  vessel  on  the  route — the 
Hibernia — and  in  1845  the  Cambria.  These  were  of 
greater  size  and  developed  a  little  better  speed  than 
their  forerunners.  It  has  always  been  the  policy  of  the 
owners  to  improve  their  ships  as  they  went  on  building, 
and  even  thus  early  that  policy  ruled. 

The  establishment  of  the  Cunard  Company  marks  a 
most  important  step  in  ocean  steam  navigation. 
Further,  in  the  same  year,  1840,  in  which  the 
Cunarders  began  to  run,  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation 
Company  was  established.  Ten  years  later  saw  the 
foundation  of  the  Collins  and  the  Inman  Lines.  The 
Collins,  an  American  Line,  boasted  that  they  would 
run  "  the  Cunarders  off  the  Atlantic."  They  were  very 
fine  vessels,  and  they  were  the  first  fleet  to  fully 
adopt  the  upright  stem  and  discard  the  bowsprit. 
But  the  Cunarders  were  ready  for  the  fierce  competi- 
tion. They  had  actually  put  on  six  new  vessels,  and 
their  new  postal  contract  of  1847  had  stipulated  for  a 
weekly,  instead  of  a  fortnightly  service ;  while  the 
subsidy  was  much  increased.  It  was  to  be  £173,340 
annually  instead  of  £81,000. 

The  echoes  of  that  fierce  struggle  between  the 
Cunarders'  and  the  Collins'  boats  have  now  died  away, 
or  have  been  quite  lost  in  the  other  clamorous  cries  of 


77 


THE    OCEAN    RACE.  79 

that  wonder  of  the  world,  the  development  of  the 
transatlantic  steamship  traffic;  but  apparently  par- 
tisanship ran  very  high.  The  Collins'  seem  to  have 
been  slightly  the  faster  vessels,  coming  from  America 
in  9  days  17  hours,  but  occupying  nearly  two  more 
days  to  return.  Alas,  disaster  overtook  them.  The 
Arctic  perished  by  collision  ;  the  Pacific  was  lost  at 
sea,  and  no  one  knows  the  story  of  her  death,  for  she 
was  never  heard  of  more.  Bad  management  and 
extravagance  surged  over  the  remaining  vessels,  and 
the  fine  ships  went  as  old  iron ! 

But  the  Inman  line  had  also  begun  to  run,  about 
1850.  These  ships,  like  the  Great  Britain,  were  built 
of  iron  and  propelled  by  a  screw.  The  first  was  the 
City  of  Glasgow,  and  several  famous  "  Cities  "  followed ; 
though  years  afterwards  the  Inman  line  became  the 
"  American,"  and  the  appellation  "  City  "  was  dropped, 
the  ships  being  simply  known  as  Paris,  New  York, 
Berlin,  etc.  The  Inman  line  had  the  distinction  of 
being  the  first,  apart  from  the  Great  Britain,  to  use 
iron  screw  steamers  regularly  on  the  Atlantic.  Other 
lines  soon  followed,  the  Anchor,  the  Allan,  and  the 
Guion,  while  the  Cunarders,  not  to  be  beaten,  came 
along  in  due  course  with  iron  and  screw  steamers. 

But  great  changes  were  at  hand.  To  mark  these 
changes  let  us  look  at  what  may  be  called  the  cul- 
minating ship  of  the  old  type  of  steamers — the  Great 
Eastern. 

This  historical  vessel  was  the  largest  ever  built.  She 
was  680  feet  long,  by  83  feet  broad,  and  her  hull  was 
60  feet  high,  70  feet  including  bulwarks.  But  the 
steam  pressure  of  her  engines  was  only  from  15  to 
25  Ibs.  She  was  fitted  with  both  screw  propeller  and 
paddle  wheels.  Her  screw  propeller  engines  were  of 
4000  indicated  horse-power,  and  paddle  of  2600,  but 
they  could  together  work  up  to  11,000  horse-power. 

Commenced  at  Millwall  early  in  1854,  she  was  not 
launched  until  near  upon  four  years  later.  The  launch- 
ing itself  was  a  difficult  and  expensive  business,  costing 


80 


ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 


£60,000,  and  only  effected  after  various  attempts 
extending  over  nearly  three  months.  The  total  cost  of 
the  vessel  has  been  estimated  at  £732,000. 


By  permission  of  I          ISAMBARD  KINGDOM  BRUNEL.      [Messrs.  Graves  d;  Co. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  so  large  an  outlay 
required  an  immense  business  to  yield  a  satisfactory 
return,  and  indeed,  financial  difficulties  hampered  her 


THE   OCEAN    RACE.  81 

success   almost    from   the   very   commencement,   even 
before  she  was  launched. 

She  was  planned,  in  1852,  by  the  great  engineer, 
I.  K.  Brunei,  and  by  Scott  Russell.  In  the  life  of 
Brunei  by  his  son,  it  is  stated: — "It  was,  no  doubt,  his 
connection  with  the  Australian  Mail  Company  that  led 
Mr.  Brunei  to  work  out  into  practical  shape  the  idea  of 
a  great  ship  for  the  Indian  or  Australian  service." 

The  Eastern  Steam  Navigation  Company  desired  a 
vessel  to  trade  to  Australia  and  back,  large  enough  to 
carry  a  sufficiency  of  coal  for  the  outward  and  home- 
ward journey,  and  yet  to  have  space  for  a  goodly 
number  of  passengers  and  a  bulky  amount  of  cargo. 

That  was  the  idea,  and  we  perhaps  can  hardly  realise 
what  a  difficulty  this  question  of  coal  carrying  capacity 
was  in  those  days,  before  the  problem  had  been  solved 
by  high  pressure  steam  boilers,  triple  expansion  engines, 
improved  condensation,  and  quick  passages.  Even  so 
great  a  philosopher  as  Dr.  Lardner  could  not  believe  in 
1835  that  a  steamship  could  voyage  from  Liverpool  to 
New  York  without  stopping — we  presume  for  fresh 
fuel. 

The  Great  Eastern,  therefore,  was  planned  to  carry 
15,000  tons  of  coal;  whereas  now  the  large  Atlantic 
liner  Paris  needs  only  2700  tons  for  her  Atlantic  trip. 
The  difference  is  most  striking,  for  the  Paris  is  one  of 
the  largest  steamships  afloat,  but  her  working  steam 
pressure  is  150  Ibs.  instead  of  the  15  or  25  Ibs.  of  the 
Great  Eastern. 

This  immense  vessel  was  also  planned  to  carry  some 
5000  persons,  or  about  500  less  if  any  large  number 
were  to  require  state  rooms,  and  finally  she  was  to 
convey  5000  tons  of  cargo.  The  idea  of  water-tight 
compartments  was  anticipated  in  her  case,  even  to  the 
extent  of  longitudinal  ones,  and  she  had  half-a-dozen 
masts  of  which  five  were  of  iron. 

When  at  length  she  was  launched,  the  directors' 
minds  misgave  them  as  to  an  Australian  trip,  and  they 
determined  to  cross  the  Atlantic  instead,  for  a  trial 

F 


82  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

voyage.  She  started  on  the  8th  of  September,  1859,  but 
alas !  when  off  Hastings  some  steam  pipes  burst. 
Several  persons  were  killed  and  wounded,  and  the 
voyage  ended  at  Portland. 

Next  year  she  tried  again  and  crossed  in  eleven  days, 
after  which  she  made  several  voyages  with  success — on 
one  occasion  conveying  soldiers  to  Canada.  Unfortun- 
ately for  the  owners,  however,  she  did  not  pay. 

Then  in  1865  she  began  to  be  engaged  in  submarine 
telegraph  work,  by  which  she  will  most  likely  be  best 
remembered,  and  two  years  later  she  was  chartered  to 
convey  passengers  from  America  to  Havre  for  the 
French  Exhibition,  but  this  scheme  failed. 

Then  for  some  years  from  1869  she  was  successfully 
engaged  in  cable-laying,  in  the  Red  Sea,  the  Atlantic, 
and  the  Mediterranean,  etc.,  after  which  she  came  down 
to  be  a  coal  hulk  in  1884,  stationed  at  Gibraltar. 

At  length  she  was  sold  for  £26,200  at  London,  by 
auction,  and  was  on  view  in  the  Thames,  and  also  in 
the  Mersey.  At  this  latter  river  her  huge  sides  were 
used  as  an  advertising  "  board  "  for  a  Liverpool  business 
house.  Again  in  November,  3888,  she  was  sold  by 
auction,  this  time  for  breaking  up,  and  it  is  said  that 
the  total  proceeds  of  the  sale  which  lasted  five  days 
was  £58,000,  more  than'  double  what  she  had  previously 
brought ! 

"  A  ship  before  her  time,"  says  some  one,  thinking  of 
the  huge  vessels  of  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  That  is  true,  but  the  immense  space  required 
for  coal,  and  her  low  pressure  engines,  had  also  some- 
thing to  do  with  her  comparative  failure.  The  pro- 
blem which  the  Great  Eastern  failed  to  solve  has  been 
met  in  other  ways — viz.,  by  the  use  of  high  pressure 
steam  and  compound,  triple-expansion  and  even  quad- 
ruple-expansion engines.  That  is,  the  steam,  working 
at  150  or  160  Ibs.  pressure,  instead  of  the  25  Ibs.  of  the 
Great  Eastern,  is  passed  through  two,  three,  and  even 
four  cylinders  respectively,  and  the  economy  in  coal 
consumption  is  astounding.  Thus  the  use  of  triple 


THE    OCEAN    RACE. 


83 


expansion  engines  has  brought  the  saving  in  coal  down 

from  4  Ibs.  per  indicated  horse-power  to  less  than  1 J  Ibs. 

There   have   been   many  other   improvements   also, 

such  as  the  use  of  steel  instead  of  iron,  the  parts  being 

thus   stronger   and   yet   lighter ;    the   circular  tubular 

boiler  enabling  high  pressure  steam  to  be  economically 

reduced  and  maintained;  the  use  of  surface  condensers, 


>y  which  the  exhaust  steam  is  quickly  reduced  to  water 
and  returned  to  a  "  hot  well  "  ready  for  the  boilers,  to  be 


THE    "GREAT   EASTERN." 

speedily  again  raised  to  high  pressure  steam ;  and  a 
forced  draught  by  which  the  furnaces  are  made  to  roar 
furiously  and  heat  the  water  in  the  boilers  speedily. 

But  these  things  were  not  all  attained  in  a  day. 
The  introduction  of  the  compound  marine  engines  in 
1854-56  by  John  Elder,  marks  the  first  great  step  of  the 
new  departure.  In  1856  he  engined  vessels  for  the 


84  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

Pacific  Steam  Navigation  Company,  on  the  compound 
principle,  which  proved  very  satisfactory. 

Again  in  1870,  the  appearance  of  the  White  Star 
liner  Oceanic,  marked  a  new  development.  Her  yacht- 
like  shape,  great  length,  and  general  symmetry  of  form 
commenced  a  marked  change  in  Atlantic  liners. 

It  was  in  1867  that  Mr.  T.  H.  Ismay  bought  the 
interest  of  the  managing  owner  of  the  White  Star  line 
— a  set  of  sailing  clippers,  dating  from  the  rush  to  the 
Australian  gold  diggings — and  began  to  introduce  iron 
vessels  instead  of  wooden  clipper  ships.  In  1869  he 
established  the  Oceanic  Steam  Navigation  Company — 
popularly  known  as  the  White  Star — and  was  later  on 
joined  by  Mr.  William  Imrie.  The  Company  was 
started  with  so  much  wisdom  and  boldness  that  the 
£1000  shares  were  privately  taken  up  at  once.  The 
order  for  the  new  steamers  was  given  to  Harland  & 
Wolff,  of  Belfast,  because,  it  is  said,  an  influential  share- 
holder had  had  satisfactory  dealings  with  them  before. 

The  Oceanic  was  of  3600  tons  burthen,  and  with 
engines  of  3000  horse-power.  The  accommodation  for 
first-class  passengers  was  placed  amidships,  where  the 
motion  of  the  vessel  is  said  to  be  felt  the  least,  and 
altogether  she  embodied  improvements  which  made 
her  the  type  of  many  of  the  Atlantic  passenger  ships 
since.  The  earlier  White  Stars  were  fitted  with  com- 
pound engines,  and  reduced  the  passage  to  about  8| 
days. 

But  when  the  White  Stars  Germanic  and  Britannic 
appeared  in  1877,  then  a  marked  advance  indeed  was 
made  in  the  Atlantic  record.  The  Britannic  astonished 
the  world  by  speeding  from  Queenstown  to  New  York 
in  7  days,  10  hours,  and  50  minutes,  and  since  then  she 
has  beaten  her  own  record.  Her  sister  ship  Germanic 
also  did  as  well,  and  the  fierce  race  for  the  blue  ribbon 
of  the  Atlantic  may  be  said  to  have  begun. 

It  was  even  prophesied  that  the  time  across  the 
water  might  be  reduced  to  six  days.  How  has  that 
been  fulfilled  ? 


BEFORE    THE    FURNACE.  85 

CHAPTER  V. 

BEFORE  THE   FURNACE. 

THE  record 's  broken  again,  Jemmy  !  The  White 
Star  has  come  home  a  couple  of  hours  earlier!" 
"She  has,  has  she?  Well,  it  will  be  the 
Cunard's  turn  next  week.  It 's  wonderful  what 
they  get  out  of  the  Cunard's  engines." 

"  They  do ;  but  I  'm  thinking  the  American's  New 
York  will  be  doin'  the  fastest  bit." 

"  Well,  well,  it  may  be.  They  're  all  main  powerful 
vessels.  Do  you  mind  when  the  Guion's  Alaska  came 
home  in  6  days,  18  hours,  37  minutes  ? " 

"  I  do,  and  about  ten  years  later,  I  suppose,  some 
ships  were  doing  it  in  about  a  day  less  time  ! " 

"  Ay,  ay,  and  I  see  they  're  goin'  ahead  down  south 
too." 

"Yes,  there's  fast  steaming  all  over  the  world, 
Jemmy  ! " 

"  I  told  you  what  would  happen  when  the  compound 
engine  came  into  use.  I  said,  '  Mark  my  words,  now 
they  Ve  got  the  compound  engine,  they  will  go  ahead' — 
and  they  have." 

Jemmy's  prediction  has  been  amply  verified,  for 
almost  every  year  since  the  compound  engine  came 
largely  into  use,  has  witnessed  a  greater  speed  in 
ocean  steamers. 

And  the  speed  has  not  been  obtained  at  sacrifice  of 
comfort.  On  the  contrary,  an  ocean  passenger  steamer 
belonging  to  any  of  the  great  passenger  lines  is  some- 
thing like  a  floating  palace. 

After  the  Britannic  and  Germanic  appeared,  line 
after  line  put  forth  fine  vessels;  and  in  1889  was 
launched  the  White  Star  steamer  Teutonic,  which  for 
some  time  held  the  proud  position  of  the  fastest  ship 
on  the  Atlantic.  She  had  crossed  in  5  days,  16  hours, 
31  minutes.  The  average  of  several  trips,  both  for 


86  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

herself  and  her  sister  Majestic,  was  5  days,  18  hours, 
6  minutes.  And  they  were  run  very  close  by  the 
American  liners,  Paris  and  New  York.  These  four 
vessels  were  among  the  first  propelled  by  twin-screws. 
Engineers  began  to  see  that  it  was  better  to  use  great 
power  in  two  shafts  and  two  propellers  than  in  one. 

In  July,  1892,  the  fine  In  man  (now  called  American) 
liner  Paris  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  5  days,  15  hours, 
and  58  minutes,  and  in  October  of  the  same  year  the 
same  vessel  steamed  from  Liverpool,  touching  as  usual 
at  Queenstown,  in  6  days,  2  hours,  and  24  minutes — 
including  the  time  at  the  Irish  port.  This  was  then 
the  quickest  time  on  record  for  the  entire  journey. 
From  Queenstown  to  Sandy  Hook  the  time  was  5 
days,  14  hours,  and  24  minutes,  a  gain  of  1  hour  and 
34  minutes  on  her  voyage  in  the  previous  July.  Her 
best  day's  run  was  530  knots. 

The  contest,  therefore,  between  the  two  White  Stars 
and  the  two  Inmans  has  been  very  close,  the  record 
time  resting  now  with  the  one  and  then  with  the 
other. 

But  the  Cunard  Company,  not  to  be  beaten,  put  on 
the  Campania  in  1893,  and  in  April  of  that  year  she 
made  the  fastest  maiden  trip  then  on  record,  one  day 
indeed  compassing  545  knots  in  the  24  hours. 

The  Campania  is  625  feet  long  by  65J  feet  broad, 
and  43  feet  deep  from  the  upper  deck.  Her  gross 
tonnage  is  12,950.  She  is  fitted  with  a  cellular  double 
bottom  extending  fore  and  aft,  and  also  with  sixteen 
bulkheads,  so  arranged  that  the  vessel  would  float  even 
if  two,  or  in  some  cases  three,  compartments  were  open 
to  the  ocean. 

She  is  a  twin-screw  vessel,  fitted  with  two  sets  of 
very  powerful  triple-expansion  engines.  They  are 
seated  in  two  separate  engine-rooms  with  a  dividing 
bulkhead  and  water-tight  doors. 

Each  set  of  engines  has  five  inverted  cylinders — viz., 
two  high  pressure,  one  intermediate,  and  two  low 
pressure — all  arranged  to  work  on  three  cranks  set  at 


BEFORE    THE    FURNACE. 


87 


an  angle  of  120  degrees  to  each  other.  Her  indicated 
horse-power  is  30,000.  The  boiler-rooms  are  doubly 
cased,  the  space  between  being  fitted  with  non- 
conducting material  for  sound  and  heat. 

In  this  huge  yessel  four  decks  rise  tier  above  tier, 


HIGH   AND   LOW   PBESSURE   CYLINDERS  OF    THE   "  CAMPANIA'S "   ENGINES. 


beside  erections  on  the  upper-deck,  known  as  promen- 
ade and  shade  decks.  These  four  principal  decks  are 
the  orlop,  the  lowest  of  all,  used  for  cargo,  stores, 
and  machinery  ;  the  lower,  the  main,  and  the  upper 


88  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

decks,  the  last  three  being  devoted  entirely  to  pas- 
sengers. 

Imagine  yourself  on  the  upper  deck.  Before  you 
stretches  the  long  vista  of  its  length,  like  some  far- 
reaching  walk  ashore ;  a  circuit  of  the  vessel  four 
times  makes  a  mile.  Above  rises  the  shade  deck  with 
the  navigating  apparatus,  and  surrounded  by  the 
twenty  lifeboats  of  the  vessel ;  above  again  is  the 
captain's  bridge,  where  are  placed  the  telegraph  and 
wheel  house,  while  higher  still  is  perched  the  crow's 
nest  or  look-out  box,  on  the  foremast,  and  about  100 
feet  from  the  water-level.  Give  a  glance,  too,  at  the 
huge  funnels,  120  feet  high,  and  so  large  that  when  in 
the  builder's  yard  a  coach  full  of  passengers  was  driven 
with  four  horses  through  one  of  them. 

Descending  then,  the  grand  staircase,  which  is  suffici- 
ently wide  for  six  persons  to  walk  down  abreast,  and 
admiring  the  polished  panelling,  the  rich  Japanese 
paper,  and  the  lounges  on  the  landings,  we  enter  the 
superb  dining-saloon  100  feet  long  by  62  feet  broad. 
Four  huge  tables  run  almost  along  its  length,  with 
smaller  tables  in  the  corners,  while  the  wood-carving, 
carpeting,  gold  decorated  roof,  costly  mirrors,  and 
upholstering  in  rich  red  velvet  are  of  the  most 
sumptuous  description. 

From  this  magnificent  hall  you  can  wander  on 
through  other  apartments  of  great  splendour,  drawing- 
room,  library,  smoking,  music  room,  bath-rooms,  and 
numbers  of  state-rooms.  There  are  single  berth,  double 
berth,  and  three  and  four  berth  cabins — the  old  wooden 
benches  for  beds,  however,  being  replaced  by  iron  bed- 
steads throughout  the  ship.  The  electric  light  glows 
everywhere,  being  distributed  by  some  fifty  miles  of 
wire. 

The  second  class  accommodation  differs  but  in  degree 
from  the  magnificence  of  the  saloon,  while  the  steerage 
passengers  are  berthed  on  the  lower  deck,  but  have  the 
privilege  of  walking  on  the  upper  deck.  An  additional 
idea  of  the  size  of  the  ship  may  be  gained  when  we  learn 


BEFOKE    THE    FURNACE.  91 

that  the  crew  consists  of  over  420  persons — viz.,  190 
engineers,  179  stewards,  and  54  sailing  hands,  while  the 
vessel's  full  complement  of  passengers  brings  up  the 
total  number  of  persons  aboard  to  1600  souls — quite  a 
floating  town  indeed. 

About  five  years  after  the  birth  of  the  Teutonic  the 
newspapers  recorded,  in  May,  1894,  that  the  Lucania, 
sister  ship  to  the  Campania,  and  one  of  the  newest  Cun- 
arders,  had  performed  the  journey  across  the  Atlantic  in 
5  days,  13  hours,  and  28  minutes.  Her  average  speed 
was  22  J  knots,  or  25  '7  land  miles  per  hour,  marking  one 
of  the  quickest  runs  then  ever  recorded  ;  and  about  the 
same  time  came  the  news  that  the  P.  &  0.  steamer 
Himalaya  had  completed  a  mail  transit  from  Bombay 
of  12 J  days,  and  as  her  voyage  to  Bombay  had  been 
just  over  13  days — the  best  outward  passage — she  had 
completed  a  round  mail  transit  to  Bombay  and  back, 
excluding  stoppages,  of  25  J  days. 

A  little  later,  in  the  same  year,  the  torpedo-boat 
destroyer,  Hornet,  built  by  Messrs.  Yarrow  &  Co., 
of  Poplar,  for  the  British  Navy,  achieved,  it  is  said, 
about  27  knots ;  that  is,  roughly  speaking,  near  to 
29  or  30  miles  an  hour,  which  speed  proclaimed  her 
to  be  then  one  of  the  fastest  steamships  in  the  world. 
She  was  fitted  with  the  Yarrow  water-tube  boilers, 
which  are  both  light  and  strong,  while  the  consump- 
tion of  coal  was  said  to  be  remarkably  small.  She  has 
two  sets  of  triple-expansion  inverted  engines. 

Again,  a  short  time  later,  Messrs.  Thorneycroft,  of 
Chiswick,  obtained  similar  results  with  the  Daring, 
another  boat  of  the  same  kind  built  for  the  British 
Government,  and  fitted  with  the  Thorneycroft  im- 
proved water-tube  boilers.  These,  it  is  claimed,  will 
raise  steam  from  cold  water  in  fifteen  minutes.  She 
passed  the  measured  mile  on  the  Maplin  at  the  high 
speed  of  29J  miles  an  hour. 

In  the  same  summer  a  Company  put  on  a  fine 
steamer  for  service  on  the  Thames  and  the  English 
Channel,  called  La  Marguerite,  which  developed,  it 


92  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

is  said,  a  speed  of  25  miles  an  hour,  which  would 
make  her  one  of  the  fastest  passenger  vessels  then 
afloat. 

Another  Company  has  also  a  noteworthy  vessel  run- 
ning on  the  Estuary  of  the  Thames — viz.,  the  London 
Belle,  plying  from  London  Bridge  to  Clacton-on-Sea. 
She  is  a  triple-expansion  paddle  boat,  and  the  first 
river  steamer  fitted  with  three  crank  triple-expansion 
paddle  engines.  She  was  built  by  Denny  of  Dumbar- 
ton, and  can  develop  a  speed  of  19|  knots — i.e.,  twenty- 
three  statute  miles  per  hour,  and  is  worked  with  great 
economy  of  coal  consumption. 

An  example  of  a  quadruple-expansion  engine  steamer 
may  be  found  in  the  Tantallon  Castle,  one  of  the 
newest  vessels  for  voyaging  to  South  Africa.  She  is 
456  feet  long,  over  50  broad,  with  a  gross  tonnage  of 
5636.  She  is  fitted  with  quadruple-expansion  engines 
of  7500  horse-power,  and  the  stoke  holes  are  well 
ventilated  by  large  fans  speeding  round  with  great 
swiftness. 

Improvements  in  steamship  building  had  gone 
steadily  on  ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  a  pound  of  coal, 
after  the  compounding  principle  came  fully  into  use, 
did  four  or  five  times  the  work  it  accomplished  before 
high  pressure  engines  were  fully  utilised. 

Let  us  enter  the  engine-room  of  a  big  liner,  and 
see  for  ourselves.  It  is  a  triumph  of  engineering. 
Still,  at  first,  you  cannot  understand  anything  of  the 
complicated  mass  of  machinery.  Then  you  notice 
three  large  cylinders — for  these  are  triple-expansion 
engines — with  pistons  shooting  in  and  out  downwards, 
and  attached  by  connecting  rods  to  the  cranks  of 
the  propeller  shaft  below.  The  cranks  are  bent  at 
different  angles  so  that  they  can  never  all  be  in  the 
same  position  at  once.  There  is  a  maze  of  machinery 
and  shining  rods,  bewildering  to  the  uninitiated  eye. 
But  you  gradually  notice  how  absolutely  regular  every 
part  is  in  its  action,  and  how  beautifully  one  part  fits 
with  another. 


BEFORE    THE   FURNACE. 


93 


Then  go  before  the  furnace;  you  find  yourself 
in  front  of  a  huge  structure,  at  the  bottom  of  which 
is  the  long  fire  box ;  above  rises  the  heat  box  com- 
municating with  tubes  over  the  furnaces,  with  the 
water  circulating  between.  The  water,  indeed,  is 

beneath  the  fur- 
nace, about  parts 
of  the  heat  box, 
between  and 
above  the  tubes. 
The  object  is,  of 
course,  to  obtain 
as  great  heat- 
ing surface  as 


STOKE   HOLE. 


possible.  The  tubes  communicate  with  the  funnel  at 
their  other  end.  Boilers  are  made  of  a  "  mild  "  steel 
which  has,  it  is  said,  a  most  remarkable  tenacity  of 
28  tons  to  the  square  inch.  Consequently  they  are 
able  to  bear  great  pressure  of  steam. 


94  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

Hot  distilled  water  is  admitted  to  the  boiler  from 
the  surface  condenser.  This  is  a  "box,"  riddled  with 
tubes,  through  which  cold  sea  water  is  pumped.  The 
waste  steam,  having  done  its  work  in  the  cylinders, 
is  passed  into  this  i(  box,"  is  condensed  by  touching 
the  chilly  tubes  of  sea  water,  and  can  be  run  off  or 
pumped  to  a  hot  cistern,  whence  it  is  used  to  feed 
the  boiler  and  be  turned  once  more  to  steam.  About 
4000  tons  of  water  an  hour  pass  through  the  sur- 
face condensers  of  a  large  liner  when  she  is  at  full  work. 

The  largest  steamers  require  over  150  men  to  work 
the  furnaces  and  machinery,  and  the  attention  given  is 
hard  and  unremitting.  In  some  of  the  fast  Atlantic 
greyhounds  the  strain  is  terribly  severe,  especially  when 
the  sea  is  beginning  to  run  high.  The  rollers  may  be 
but  20  feet,  yet  these  are  quite  high  enough  even  for  a 
splendid  ocean  racer  to  contend  with  and  yet  maintain 
her  speed. 

Now  her  bows  are  pointing  sky  high,  and  her  stern 
is  deeply  submerged ;  now  she  takes  a  header  plump 
into  the  trough  of  the  sea,  and  the  engines  race 
round;  the  propeller  is  suddenly  raised  out  of  water. 
But  blow  high,  or  blow  low,  on  she  goes,  and  the 
engineers  are  always  busy.  The  furnaces  roar  with 
ceaseless  rage.  For  days  and  nights  the  fires  are 
kept  at  glowing  heat.  A  forced  blast  maintains  the 
draught;  the  steam  condensed  back  into  warm  water 
is  supplied  to  the  boilers ;  half-naked  men  work  hour 
after  hour  to  rake  the  fires,  clean  them,  pile  on  the  fuel, 
and  keep  the  most  powerful  head  of  steam  the  boilers 
can  stand. 

When  the  furnace  doors  are  opened  tongues  of  flame 
leap  forth,  and  the  heat  is  enough  to  make  a  man 
sick.  But  with  head  turned  away,  the  stoker  stirs 
up  the  fire  with  his  huge  "slice"  or  fire  rake,  and 
cleans  out  the  clinker  clogging  the  bars. 

Then  on  go  the  coals !  One  layer,  shot  in  from 
the  shovel  with  unerring  precision  and  skilful  experi- 
ence, right  at  the  back ;  then  another  just  in  front 


BEFORE    THE    FURNACE.  95 

of  the  first,  and  so  on  till  the  long  furnace  is  filled. 
Bang!  the  furnace  door  clangs,  and  the  man  reels 
away,  sick  and  exhausted,  with  tingling  eyes  and 
heaving  chest.  Then  coal  has  to  be  brought  from 
the  bunkers  to  the  furnaces,  tons  of  it  per  day,  and 
if  the  ship  rolls  too  much  for  the  barrows  to  be  used, 
the  fuel  must  be  carried  in  baskets. 

There  is  an  engineer  in  charge  of  each  stoke  hole, 
and  two  on  the  platform  in  each  engine  room  ;  as  a 
rule,  the  staff  are  on  duty  in  turns — four  hours  out  of 
every  twelve.  But  if  the  weather  be  bad  they  may 
have  harder  times. 

No  matter  how  hot  the  machinery  becomes,  the 
engineers  must  not  reduce  speed,  except  it  be  to  pre- 
vent disaster.  Oil  is  swabbed  on  in  bucketfuls,  so  to 
speak,  but  at  every  thrust  the  polished  steel  may  gleam 
dry  and  smoking.  Then  on  goes  the  water,  as  if  there 
actually  was  a  conflagration,  and  meantime  a  mixture 
of  oil  and  sulphur  is  dabbed  on.  The  water  flies  off 
in  steam,  so  hot  are  the  bearings,  so  terrific  the  friction 
of  the  incessant  speed ;  and  at  last,  down  comes  the 
reluctant  order,  wrung  out  of  the  chief  like  gold  from  a 
miser — "  Slow  her  down." 

It  is  done — dampers  are  clapped  on  furnaces,  steam 
pressure  dropped  a  little,  and  engines  reduced  to  half 
speed ;  the  three  great  cranks  of  the  high,  intermediate, 
and  low  pressure  cylinders  move  round  easily,  and  the 
tremendous  noise  gradually  sinks  to  a  murmur,  com- 
pared with  the  previous  rush  and  roar.  The  machinery 
cools.  But  when  quite  safe,  on  is  piled  the  speed  once 
more,  and  again  the  cranks  fly  round,  and  the  mighty 
engines  work  their  hardest  to  drive  the  mammoth  ship 
through  the  surging  green  rollers. 

So  superbly  are  these  marine  engines  built,  and  so 
excellently  are  they  maintained,  being  continually  over- 
hauled, so  as  to  be  kept  in  the  pink  of  perfection,  that, 
as  years  go  on,  they  seem  to  "  warm  to  their  work  "  and 
do  even  better  than  at  first. 

On   the    completion    of    the    200th    round    voyage 


96  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

of  the  celebrated  "White  Stars,"  Germanic  and 
Britannic,  about  January,  1894,  they  seemed  steaming 
as  regularly  and  as  fast,  or  faster  than  ever.  Thus,  on 
the  198th  outward  trip  of  the  Germanic,  in  September, 
1893,  she  made  the  fastest  westward  passage,  but  one, 
she  had  ever  accomplished.  During  their  lives,  it  was 
said  these  vessels  had  maintained  remarkable  uni- 
formity in  speed,  and  each  vessel  had  steamed  200 
times  6200  nautical  miles,  that  is  nearly  a  million 
and  a-half  statute  miles,  with  the  original  engines  and 
boilers — a  performance,  in  all  probability,  without 
parallel  in  the  world. 

Those  people  who  care  for  figures  may  be  interested 
in  knowing  that  the  Britannic  had  been  91,741  hours 
under  steam,  and  85,812  hours  actually  under  weigh. 
Her  engines  had  made  280  million  revolutions,  and 
maintained  an  average  speed  of  15  knots,  or  17  J  statute 
miles  an  hour,  while  she  had  burnt  406,000  tons  of  coal. 
During  their  nineteen  years  of  life  the  two  vessels  had 
carried  100,000  saloon,  and  over  260,000  steerage 
passengers,  in  safety  and  in  comfort. 

This  is  a  record  of  which  all  concerned,  builders, 
owners,  and  working  staff,  may  well  be  proud.  It 
augurs  first-class,  honest  work,  and  superb  engineering 
skill.  Since  the  construction  of  these  ships,  however, 
vessels  surpassing  them  in  speed  have,  of  course,  been 
built,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  the  same  line's 
Teutonic  and  Majestic. 

The  well-known  Cunarders,  Umbria  and  Etruria, 
have  also  done  some  very  fine  work,  indicating  great 
excellence  of  construction.  Thus,  on  her  eighty-second 
voyage,  the  Umbria  steamed  from  Queenstown  to  Sandy 
Hook  in  5  days,  22  hours  ;  or,  allowing  for  detention 
through  fog,  5  days,  18  J  hours,  which  is  within  three 
or  four  hours  of  the  White  Stars'  and  American's  time. 

The  story  of  the  British  warship  Calliope,  at  Samoa, 
will  also  show  how  marvellously  well  ships'  engines  can 
be  built.  Some  difficulties  had  arisen  between  the 
United  States  and  Germany  as  to  Samoa,  and  several 


BEFORE    THE    FURNACE.  97 

warships  had  gathered  there.  Some  weeks  of  bad 
weather  had  occurred,  and  then,  on  the  15th  of  March, 
1889,  the  wind  began  to  blow  with  tremendous  force. 
Down  came  the  top  masts  from  the  warships — taken 
down  as  a  precaution ;  steam  was  raised  in  the  boilers  in 
case  anchors  should  not  hold,  and  spars  were  made 
secure.  But  no  man  among  the  sailors  expected  such 
a  hurricane  as  ensued. 

Rain  fell  at  midnight,  and  the  wind  increased.  Huge 
waves  rolled  in  from  the  South  Pacific,  and  the  vessels 
tugged  madly  at  their  anchor  chains  and  pitched  fear- 
fully up  and  down,  like  corks.  Then  the  Eber,  one  of 
the  German  ships,  began  to  drag  her  anchors ;  and  the 
Vandalia,  one  of  the  Americans,  followed  suit.  But 
by  their  steam  power  they  kept  off  a  dangerous  reef, 
and  also  prevented  themselves  from  colliding  with  their 
neighbours. 

Still  higher  and  higher  blew  the  hurricane,  and  the 
rain  fell  with  tropic  severity.  Three  hours  after  mid- 
night the  situation  had  become  terrible.  Almost  every 
vessel  was  dragging  her  anchors,  and  the  danger  of 
collision  was  constant. 

The  scene  of  the  occurrence  was  a  small  bay  before 
Apia,  the  capital  of  Samoa.  But  there  is  a  coral  reef 
extending  in  front  of  the  bay  for  about  two  miles,  and 
in  the  centre  of  the  reef  an  opening  about  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  wide.  The  ships,  therefore,  were  shut  up  in  a 
comparatively  small  space,  from  which  the  way  of  escape 
was  this  gateway  through  the  reef.  The  tide  rushed  in 
with  great  rapidity,  swamping  the  land  a  hundred  feet 
or  so  above  high-water  mark. 

As  morning  dawned  and  wore  on  to  day,  the  Eber 
collided  with  the  Nipsic  and  then  with  the  Olga,  and, 
finally,  was  dashed  by  the  huge  waves,  like  a  toy,  upon 
the  reef,  and  rolled  over  into  deep  water.  Only 
five  men  struggled  to  shore  and  were  saved.  Other  sad 
disasters  occurred ;  and  then,  shortly  before  noon,  the 
Vandalia  and  the  Calliope  were  tossed  perilously  near 
together,  and  also  toward  the  dangerous  reef.  In 

G 


98  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

endeavouring  to  steam  away,  the  Vandalia  collided 
with  the  Calliope,  and  was  much  damaged.  Then,  with 
splendid  courage,  Captain  Kane  determined  to  steam 
right  away  to  sea — to  remain  would  but  risk  another 
collision,  or  a  wreck  on  the  reef.  Sea-room  he  must 
have  at  any  cost ! 

"  Lift  all  anchors ! "  was  the  thrilling  order,  and 
then — "  Full  speed  ahead  ! "  Round  swung  the  vessel's 
head  to  the  wind,  and  though  the  powerful  engines 
were  working  "  all  they  knew  "  to  force  the  ship  along, 
the  steamer  stood  still,  as  if  aghast  at  being  asked  to 
break  through  these  tremendous  waves. 

But  she  stood  for  a  moment  only.  The  superb 
engines  began  to  tell;  the  quickly-whirling  screw 
churned  up  the  heavy  water  at  the  stern,  and  slowly 
the  good  ship  made  headway  through  the  huge  billows. 
They  crashed  over  her  stern  and  poured  over  her  decks, 
as  if  in  anger  at  her  defiance.  But  on  went  the  coal  to 
her  furnaces,  and  the  thick  smoke  reeled  off  from  the 
funnel  in  volumes.  The  strain  quivered  through  every 
limb  of  the  ship,  but  her  captain  kept  her  at  it,  and  inch 
by  inch  she  forced  her  way  through  the  pounding  seas. 

"  This  manoeuvre  of  the  gallant  British  ship,"  says  an 
eye-witness,  Mr.  John  P.  Dunning,  of  the  Associated 
U.S.  Press,  "  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  daring  in 
naval  annals.  It  was  the  one  desperate  chance  offered 
her  commander  to  save  his  vessel  and  the  three  hundred 
lives  aboard.  An  accident  to  the  machinery  at  this 
critical  moment  would  have  meant  certain  death  to  all. 
Every  pound  of  steam  which  the  Calliope  could  possibly 
carry  was  crowded  on,  and  down  in  the  fire-rooms  the 
men  worked  as  they  never  had  worked  before.  To  clear 
the  harbour,  the  Calliope  had  to  pass  between  the 
Trenton  (an  American  warship)  and  the  reef,  and  it 
required  the  most  skilful  seamanship  to  avoid  a  collision 
with  the  Trenton,  on  the  one  hand,  or  total  destruction 
upon  the  reef,  on  the  other.  The  Trenton's  fires  had 
gone  out  by  that  time,  and  she  lay  helpless  almost  in 
the  path  of  the  Calliope" 


BEFORE    THE    FURNACE. 


99 


But  the  dreaded  collision  did  not  take  place.  And  as 
the  Calliope  passed  near  to  the  Trenton,  a  great  shout 
was  given  for  the  British  vessel,  and  the  Englishmen 
responded  with  a  noble  cheer.  Captain  Kane,  who 
subsequently  was  appointed  to  the  Inflexible,  said 
afterwards  : 

"Those   ringing   cheers   of  the  American    flag-ship 


PKOMENAUli    DECK   OF   THK    "  PARIS.''' 


pierced  deep  into  my  heart,  and  I  shall  ever  remember 
that  mighty  outburst  of  fellow-feeling  which,  I  felt, 
came  from  the  bottom  of  the  hearts  of  the  gallant 
Admiral  and  his  men.  Every  man  on  board  the  Calliope 
felt  as  I  did  ;  it  made  us  work  to  win.  I  can  only  say, 
'  God  bless  America  and  her  noble  sailors  ! ' ' 

The  Calliope  did  win.     Her  superb  machinery  and 


100  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

the  fine  seamanship  with  which  she  was  handled  were 
successful,  and  she  returned  to  the  harbour  when  the 
storm  had  subsided.  Happily  the  brave  men  of  the 
Trenton  also  survived,  though  fourteen  vessels  were 
wrecked  and  nearly  150  lives  were  lost. 

Strongly  and  staunchly  as  are  built  the  Government 
ships,  many  of  the  great  liners  are  their  equals  in  these 
respects.  Indeed,  several  of  them  are  now  retained  by 
the  Government  to  be  used  as  armed  cruisers  should 
occasion  require.  The  fittings  and  accommodation  on 
many  a  large  liner  are  also  luxurious  in  the  extreme. 
There  are  library  and  smoking-room,  superb  saloons 
and  state-rooms,  drawing-rooms,  music-rooms,  and  tea- 
rooms, bath-rooms,  etc.  In  short,  they  are  floating 
hotels  of  a  most  sumptuous  character. 

A  modern  steamship,  with  its  multitude  of  comforts 
and  conveniences  for  passengers  and  its  complexities  of 
machinery  for  fast  and  safe  steaming,  is  a  great  triumph 
of  engineering  skill.  Patience  and  forethought,  the 
persevering  development  of  sound  principles,  and  the 
application  of  new  ideas,  have  all  contributed  to  this 
great  achievement. 

From  the  Comet  to  the  Campania  is  a  marvellous 
development  within  a  century.  And  it  has  not  been 
accomplished  along  one  line,  but  upon  many.  The  use 
of  steel,  of  many-tubed  and  strong  boilers,  of  high  pres- 
sure steam,  which  would  have  frightened  Henry  Bell 
out  of  his  senses,  the  forced  draught  and  the  surface 
condensers,  the  screw  propeller,  the  direct-acting  and 
the  triple  and  quadruple  expansion  engines,  have  all 
contributed  to  the  noble  results.  Steamships,  with  their 
complex,  beautiful,  and  powerful  machinery,  may  rank 
among  the  most  wonderful  things  that  mankind  has 
ever  made. 


FAMOUS  BRIDGES  AND  THEIR  BUILDERS. 


Y 


CHAPTER  I 

"THE  BRIDGE   BY   THE   EARTHEN   HOUSE." 

"OU  will  not  try  again,  surely  ?  " 
"  Ay,  I  shall  indeed !  " 
"  What !  after  two  failures  ? " 
"Yes;   I  see  the  mistakes  now.     This  bridge 
fell  because  it  had  too  much  weight  on  its  haunches." 

"  Haunches !  you  mean  the  two  side-curves  of  the 
arch  were  too  heavy." 

"  Ay ;  you  've  heard  the  proverb  no  doubt  that  '  An 
arch  never  sleeps.'  That  is,  should  too  great  a  weight 
fall  on  the  crown  or  top  part,  the  arch  will  fall  at  the 
sides  outwardly,  and  the  crown  will  sink  ;  while,  curi- 
ously enough,  if  it  be  built  with  too  little  weight  on  the 
crown,  as  this  was,  the  crown  will  be  forced  upwards, 
and  the  sides  will  fall  inwards." 

"  Then  you  mean  to  build  your  third  bridge  with  less 
weight  proportionately  on  its  haunches  ?  " 
"  Exactly  so." 

"  Well,  I  wish  you  good  luck,  friend  Edwards,  for  we 
need  a  bridge  sorely  over  the  brawling  Taff." 

"  You  shall  have  it,  neighbour.  I  shall  succeed  this 
time.  I  have  gripped  the  right  principle  at  last." 

101 


102 


ENGINEEES    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 


He  had  indeed,  for  the  bridge  he  then  built  lasts  to 
this  day.  It  was  the  famous  Pontypridd  bridge  over 
the  Taff  on  the  Llantrissant  and  Merthyr  road,  and 
was  called  the  Pont  y  du  Prydd,  or  the  bridge  by  the 
earthen  house,  for  a  mud  hut  stood  near. 

About  the  year  1745  it  was  determined  to  build  a 
bridge  over  the  rushing  Taff,  and  William  Edwards,  a 
self-taught  mason  of  the  country,  undertook  the  task. 
The  first  bridge  he  built  was  of  three  arches,  which,  in 


From  Encyclopaedia] 


PONTYPKIDD   BRIDGE. 


[Britannica. 


less  than  three  years,  was  dashed  away  by  a  great  flood. 
The  water  rose  so  high  as  to  surge  over  the  parapet. 

It  must  have  been  a  sore  disappointment  to  the 
hard  worker  to  see  his  structure  suddenly  swept  to 
ruins.  But  he  was  a  shrewd,  common-sense,  observ- 
ing man,  and,  nothing  daunted,  he  tried  again.  This 
time  he  determined  to  build  one  bold  arch  of  140  feet. 
The  object  was  to  obviate  the  necessity  of  raising  piers 
for  more  arches,  and  so  obstructing  the  water;  these 


103 

former  piers  having  caused,  or  assisted  in  causing,  the 
destruction  of  his  first  bridge. 

But  the  second  gave  way  from  the  proportionally 
heavy  weights  on  the  haunches,  as  Edwards,  we  imagine, 
told  his  friend,  and  once  more  he  had  to  face  ruins. 
Yet  a  third  time  he  tried,  and  the  third  time  he  was 
successful.  Generations  have  come  and  gone,  the  child- 
ren who  played  about  its  abutments  have  grown  grey 
and  have  passed  away,  but  still  the  country  mason's 
bridge  of  140  feet  span  stands  its  ground  and  serves  the 
community. 

He  reduced  the  heavy  weight  on  the  sides  by  making 
openings  in  the  spandrels — that  is,  the  part  above  the 
curve  of  the  arch ;  while,  instead  of  filling  up  the  interior 
space  with  rubble,  he  used  charcoal.  But  the  arch  is 
very  steep,  and  a  chain  and  drag  is  kept  to  assist  any 
horse  when  descending. 

These  bridges  illustrate  the  principle  of  the  arch. 
Passing  by  the  fact  that  it  is  evidently  safer  to  span  a 
swelling  river  by  a  bridge  of  wide,  rather  than  of  several 
narrow  arches,  three  powers  or  forces  act  on  the  row 
of  stones  or  bricks  forming  the  arch.  There  is  first  the 
force  that  would  carry  the  stone  downward — that  is, 
the  force  of  its  own  weight  and  of  anything  that  might 
be  placed  upon  it.  But  then  there  are  stones  or  bricks 
pressing  against  it  on  either  side,  and  in  its  turn  it 
presses  upon  them.  When,  therefore,  every  part  presses 
equally,  one  not  heavier  or  weaker  than  the  others,  a 
support  for  all  is  gained  by  the  contiguous  pressure  and 
by  the  balance  of  forces. 

Long  bridges  were  sometimes  built  in  this  way,  and 
the  longest  in  England  in  the  Middle  Ages  was  at 
Burton,  over  the  Trent.  It  was  1545  feet  long,  and 
had  36  arches.  It  was  not  superseded  till  1864,  when 
a  new  bridge  was  built. 

In  an  arched  bridge,  the  higher  it  rises  in  proportion 
to  the  width  of  the  arch,  the  easier  is  its  construction, 
and  the  less  is  the  stress  upon  its  parts ;  moreover,  any 
inaccuracy  in  design  or  in  building  is  likely  to  be  less 


104  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

harmful.  We  are  not  surprised,  therefore,  that  Edwards, 
in  his  third  attempt,  decided  upon  that  form. 

One  of  the  widest  arches  in  the  world  is  that  of  the 
famous  Grosvenor  Bridge  at  Chester.  It  has  a  span  of 
200  feet,  with  a  rise  of  42  feet.  An  arch,  however, 
in  the  Washington  Aqueduct  extends  to  220  feet  span, 
while  the  central  span  in  the  Southwark  Bridge, 
designed  by  Rennie,  is  240  feet.  This  last,  however,  is 
of  cast-iron. 

The  principle  of  the  arch,  however,  does  not  appear 
first  in  the  history  of  bridge  building.  Bridges  are  as 
old  as  mankind  ;  that  is,  no  one  knows  when  first  men 
began  to  cross  streams  and  chasms  by  placing  the 
trunk  of  a  tree  from  one  side  to  the  other,  and  thus 
bridging  the  gulf. 

Then,  possibly,  the  next  step  was  to  build  up  a  pile 
of  stones  in  the  centre  of  the  stream — taking  the  stones 
there  by  coracle  or  canoe — and  placing  a  tree  trunk 
from  the  side  to  the  central  heap. 

Yet  another  development  would  most  likely  be  a 
simple  cantilever  bridge — though  these  early  builders 
would  not  have  known  that  Frenchified  word.  But 
they  knew  that  after  embedding  a  tree  trunk  firmly  on 
each  side  of  the  bank  so  that  a  considerable  portion 
should  project  over  the  stream,  they  could  place  a 
third  log  from  one  end  to  the  other,  and  thus  get  a 
bridge  much  longer  than  when  made  of  one  tree  trunk 
alone. 

This  principle,  known  so  long  ago,  was  used  and 
immensely  developed  in  the  construction  of  the  famous 
Forth  Bridge,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  structures  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  This  cantilever  principle  is 
very  important  in  bridge  building,  and  it  is  said  that 
there  exists  an  ancient  bridge  on  this  principle  across 
the  Sutlej  in  India  with  a  span  of  200  feet. 

A  further  variety  of  early  bridges  was  the  "slab" 
bridge,  consisting  of  slabs  of  granite  placed  from  side  to 
side,  or  from  the  sides  of  the  bank  to  heaps  of  stones 
piled  up  in  the  stream.  A  good  example  of  such  a 


105 


"THE    BRIDGE   BY    THE    EARTHEN    HOUSE."       107 

bridge  may  be  seen  at  "  Post  Bridge  "  over  the  Dart  on 
Dartmoor.  Ages  ago  this  bridge  was  built,  and  as  we 
study  it  and  compare  it  with  the  modern  structure  not 
far  distant,  we  wonder  how  the  ancient  Britons — if 
those  sturdy  individuals  are  really  responsible  for  it — 
could  raise  and  place  those  huge  slabs  of  stone  without 
engineering  apparatus.  Probably  it  was  done  with 
levers  and  rollers,  and  there  must  have  been  many 
shoulders  to  the  wheel  in  the  process.  Certainly  they 
had  plenty  of  granite  at  hand  on  wild  Dartmoor. 

But  passing  by  all  these  early  forms  of  bridges — 
which  it  will  be  noticed  are  built  of  a  few  large  pieces 
of  material — it  was  left  to  the  Romans,  at  all  events  in 
Europe,  to  largely  adopt  the  arch  as  a  principle  of 
construction. 

Now,  here  we  are  dealing  with  an  altogether  different 
principle.  The  arch  is  made  up  of  a  number  of  com- 
paratively small  pieces  of  material  bound  together  by 
mortar,  or  cement,  or  even  clamps,  and  by  the  power  of 
gravitation. 

We  doubt  if  that  idea  is  realised  by  half  the  people 
using  the  multitudinous  arches  abounding  to-day  ;  yet 
it  is  true.  Or  to  put  it  in  another  way,  the  various 
parts  are  arranged  so  that  they  keep  up  each  other 
by  pressure. 

If  you  take  two  cards,  or  bricks,  or  slabs  of  stone  and 
lean  them  together  at  the  top,  while  the  other  ends 
may  be  far  apart,  you  will  find  they  will  bear  a  certain 
amount  of  weight.  Here  you  have  the  principle  of  the 
arch  in  its  simplest  form ;  and  it  may  be  that  out  of 
that  primitive  performance  the  arch  has  grown.  This 
kind  of  triangular  arch  is  to  be  met  with  in  ancient 
structures  in  Great  Britain.  The  flanks  or  haunches  of 
an  arch  are  its  sides,  from -the  first  stone  to  the  key- 
stone ;  and  the  crown  is  its  highest  part ;  while  the 
central  wedge-shaped  piece  of  stone  or  brick  is  called 
the  keystone. 

The  stones  or  bricks  are  cemented  together  when 
being  built  over  a  framework  of  timber,  called  the 


108  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

centering,  and  when  the  keystone  is  placed  and  the 
arch  is  complete  it  ought  to  remain  firm. 

But  should  too  great  a  weight  fall  on  the  crown  the 
bridge  will  fall  outwardly  at  the  sides,  and  the  crown 
will  sink ;  while,  curiously  enough,  if  it  be  built  with 
too  little  weight  on  the  crown,  it  will  be,  as  it  were, 
forced  upwards,  and  the  sides  will  fall  inwards,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  second  of  the  famous  Pontypridd  bridges, 
which  actually  did  this.  The  material  in  the  middle  of 
the  arch  was  less  in  proportion  than  that  over  the  sides 
or  "haunches,"  and  these  heavier  weights  on  the  sides 
caused  the  crown  to  be  forced  upwards. 

Two  causes  combined  to  make  changes  in  bridge 
building.  These  were  the  needs  of  railways  and  the 
introduction  of  iron  as  a  building  material.  The  first 
iron  bridge  was  constructed  over  the  Severn,  near  an 
appropriately  named  place,  Ironbridge,  in  1779.  It 
had  an  arch  of  near  upon  a  hundred  feet  span. 

When,  however,  very  wide  span  bridges  were  required, 
the  question  arose  of  the  superiority  of  wrought-iron 
over  cast-iron  for  such  structures.  The  Menai  Strait 
had  to  be  crossed  for  the  Chester  and  Holyhead  Rail- 
way, and  the  greatest  existing  cast-iron  span  was 
Rennie's  Southwark  Bridge,  where  240  feet  had  been 
reached.  But  over  the  Con  way  and  the  Menai  Strait, 
spans  of  400  feet  were  involved.  How  were  these 
yawning  gulfs  to  be  bridged  ? 


CHAPTER  II. 

A  NEW  IDEA — THE  BRITANNIA   TUBULAR. 

"  TT  TE  must  cross  the  Strait  at  the  Britannia  Rock 

\\        —that  is  settled." 

V  V  "  And  where  is  the  Britannia  Rock  ? " 

"  Nearly  in  mid-channel.     It  seems  placed 
there  for  the  purpose." 


A    NEW    IDEA — THE    BRITANNIA    TUBULAR.       109 

And  the  great  engineer  smiled. 

"  What  are  the  distances  ? " 

"  From  coast  to  coast  the  span  of  the  Strait  is  some 
1100  feet,  with  that  rock  in  the  centre.  Now  the  pro- 
blem is,  to  build  a  bridge  across  that  gulf  of  surging 
water  strong  enough  to  bear  heavy  trains  at  high 
speeds,  and  sufficiently  above  the  water  to  prevent  any 
interference  with  navigation." 

"  And  how  will  you  manage  it  ? " 

"  First  I  thought  of  large  cast-iron  arches,  but  they 
will  not  do.  I  doubt  if  they  would  stand  the  strain  ; 
and  moreover  we  should  impede  navigation  by  raising 
scaffolding  during  the  building.  At  length  I  came  to 
the  idea  of  a  tube  bridge." 

"  What !  a  tube  bridge  !     I  Ve  never  heard  of  it ! " 

"  No,  it  is  a  new  idea.  By  reconsidering  a  design  I 
had  made  for  a  small  bridge  over  the  Lea  at  Ware  in 
1841,  and  thinking  over  the  matter,  I  came  to  the  idea 
that  a  bridge  consisting  of  a  hollow  beam  or  tube  might 
solve  the  difficulty." 

"  A  huge  hollow  girder,  so  to  speak  !  "  exclaimed  his 
friend. 

"  Exactly  so.  A  ccordingly ,"  the  engineer  continued, 
"  I  had  drawings  prepared  and  calculations  made,  by 
which  to  ascertain  the  strength  of  such  a  bridge,  and 
they  were  so  satisfactory  that  I  decided  on  attempting 
one." 

"  It  is  like  constructing  one  huge  hollow  beam  of  iron 
by  rivetting  plates  together.  Can  it  be  done  ? "  re- 
marked his  friend. 

"  The  making  of  the  high  level  bridge  over  the 
Tyne,  in  which  I  had  a  part — the  bridge  between 
Newcastle  and  Gateshead,  you  know — was  a  transition 
between  an  arched  bridge  and  a  girder  bridge.  A 
girder  of  course  is  a  beam,  it  may  be  of  iron  or  wood, 
and  the  little  bridge  at  Ware  has  been  built  of  girders 
made  of  plates  of  wrought-iron  rivetted  together. 
Therefore,  you  see,  I  am  not  unused  to  wrought-iron 
girders,  and  what  they  will  bear." 


110  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

"  Why,  it  is  like  a  huge  extension  of  the  primitive 
log-bridge  of  our  ancestors." 

"  If  you  like,"  replied  the  engineer,  laughing. 

Robert  Stephenson — for  he  it  is  whom  we  suppose  to 
be  speaking  to  his  friend  on  this  gigantic  engineering 
enterprise — became  satisfied  by  reflection  that  the 
principles  involved  in  constructing  an  immense  tubular 
beam  were  but  a  development  of  those  commonly  in 
use ;  and  Sir  William  Fairbairn  was  entrusted  with  the 
duty  of  experimenting  as  to  the  strength  of  tubes,  the 
directors  of  the  Railway  Company  voting  a  sum  of 
money  for  the  purpose. 

Sir  William,  then  Mr.,  Fairbairn  concluded  that 
rectangular  tubes  were  the  strongest,  and  a  model  was 
made  of  the  suggested  bridge.  It  proved  successful, 
and  indicated  that  the  tube  would  be  able  to  stand  the 
strain  of  a  heavy  train  passing  rapidly  over  it. 

In  September,  1846,  Mr.  Fairbairn  read  a  paper  on 
the  subject  at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
at  Southampton,  as  also  did  Professor  Hodgkinson,  a 
mathematician,  who  had  verified  Fairbairn's  experi- 
ments. Not  long  afterwards  Stephenson  became  satis- 
fied that  chains  were  not  needed  to  assist  in  supporting 
the  bridge,  and  that  his  tubes  would  be  strong  enough 
to  support  themselves  entirely  between  the  piers. 

Work  therefore  went  forward.  Some  1500  men  were 
engaged  on  the  Britannia  Bridge,  and  the  quiet  shores 
of  the  Menai  Straits  resounded  with  the  busy  hum  of 
hammers  and  machinery.  Cottages  of  wood  were  built 
for  the  men,  and  workshops  for  the  punching  and 
rivetting  of  the  plates  for  the  gigantic  tubes. 

The  design  included  two  abutments  of  masonry  on 
either  side  of  the  Strait,  and  three  towers  or  huge  piers, 
one  of  which,  the  centre  pier,  was  to  rise  from  the 
Britannia  Rock,  230  feet  high.  There  are  four  spans, 
two  over  the  water  of  460  feet  each,  and  two  of  230  feet 
each  over  the  land.  Two  tubes,  quite  independent  of 
each  other,  but  lying  side  by  side,  form  the  bridge 
across.  Each  tube  or  beam  is  1510  feet  long,  and 


A    NEW    IDEA — THE    BRITANNIA    TUBULAR.        Ill 

weighs  4680  tons.  Its  weight  at  one  of  the  long  spans 
is  1587  tons. 

Now  how  could  these  gigantic  tubes  be  put  together 
and  raised  to  their  positions?  Here  was  a  problem 
almost  as  great  as  the  original  one  of  the  bridge  itself, 
and  it  troubled  the  engineer  sorely. 

"  Often  at  night,"  he  declared,  "  I  would  lie  tossing 
about,  seeking  sleep  in  vain.  The  tubes  filled  my  head. 


KOBEllT   H  i'El>MEfl  SON. 


I  went  to  bed  with  them,  and  got  up  with  them.  In  the 
gray  of  the  morning,  when  I  looked  across  Gloucester 
Square,  it  seemed  an  immense  distance  across  to  the 
houses  on  the  opposite  side.  It  was  nearly  the  same 
length  as  the  span  of  my  tubular  bridge." 

The  principle  adopted  was  to  construct  the  shorter 
tubes  on  scaffolds  in  the  places  which  they  were  to 


112  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

occupy.  This  could  be  done,  for  such  scaffolding  would 
not  impede  navigation.  But  scaffolding  could  not  be 
built  for  the  large  tubes  across  the  great  spans  of  water. 
What  then  was  to  be  done  ? 

It  was  decided  to  build  them  on  platforms  on  the 
shore  quite  close  to  the  water,  and  float  them  when 
ready  on  pontoons  to  their  places  between  the  piers,  rais- 
ing them  to  their  position  by  hydraulic  power.  Such  a 
task  would  be  hazardous  enough.  It  was  first  tried  at 
Conway,  where  a  similar  bridge  was  being  built  by 
Robert  Stephenson,  being  indeed  part  of  the  same 
railway.  The  Britannia  was,  however,  a  much  greater 
enterprise,  though  the  span  of  the  Conway  is  400 
feet.  The  Conway  bridge,  indeed,  is  but  of  one  span, 
and  contains  two  tubes. 

The  experience  at  Conway  was  of  great  benefit  to 
the  gigantic  undertaking  at  the  Menai  Strait.  The 
floating  of  the  first  tube  was  to  take  place  on  the  19th 
of  June,  1849,  in  the  evening ;  but  owing  to  some  of 
the  machinery  having  given  way,  the  great  event  was 
put  off  to  the  next  night.  The  shores  were  crowded 
with  spectators.  When  the  tube  was  finished  it  could 
be  transferred  to  the  pontoons  ;  for  the  tubes  had  been 
built  at  high-water  mark.  When  the  pontoons  were 
fairly  afloat  on  this  fateful  evening,  they  were  held  and 
guided  by  leading  strings  of  mighty  strength.  Stephen- 
son  himself  directed  in  person,  from  a  point  of  vantage 
at  the  roof  of  the  tube.  Thence  he  gave  the  signals 
which  had  been  agreed  upon,  whilst  a  crew  of  sailors, 
directed  by  Captain  Claxton,  manned  the  strange 
barque. 

A  pontoon  is  a  light,  buoyant  boat,  and  the  tube 
was  supported  on  sets  of  these,  their  speed  increas- 
ing terribly  as  they  approached  their  place  by  the 
towers.  The  idea  was,  as  related  by  Mr.  Edwin  Clark, 
Stephenson's  assistant,  that  they  should  strike  a  "  butt " 
properly,  underneath  the  Anglesey  Tower,  "  on  which, 
as  upon  a  centre,  the  tube  was  to  be  veered  round  into 
its  position  across  the  opening.  This  position  was 


A    NEW    IDEA — THE    BRITANNIA    TUBULAR.       113 

determined  by  a  twelve-inch  line,  which  was  to  be  paid 
out  to  a  fixed  mark  from  the  Llanfair  capstan.  The 
coils  of  the  rope  unfortunately  over-rode  each  other 
upon  this  capstan,  so  that  it  could  not  be  paid  out." 

Destruction  seemed  imminent.  The  capstan  was 
actually  dragged  from  the  platform,  and  the  tube 
seemed  likely  to  be  swept  away.  Then  Mr.  Rolfe, 
the  captain  of  the  capstan,  shouted  to  the  spectators, 
and  threw  out  a  spare  twelve-inch  rope.  Seizing  this, 
the  crowd,  with  right  good- will,  rushed  it  up  the  field, 
and  clung  tightly  to  it,  checking  the  voyage  of  the 
mighty  tube.  It  was  brought  to  the  "  butt,"  and  duly 
turned  round. 

A  recess  had  been  left  in  the  masonry  of  the  tower, 
and  the  end  near  the  Britannia  pier  was  drawn  into 
it  by  means  of  a  chain.  The  Anglesey  end  followed. 
Then  the  tide  gradually  sank,  the  pontoons  sank  with 
it,  and  the  tube  subsided  also  to  a  shelf  which  had 
been  made  at  either  end.  The  first  stage  was  accom- 
plished ;  the  mighty  tube  was  in  position  to  be  raised. 

Shouts  of  rejoicing  burst  from  the  sympathetic 
crowds,  and  the  boom  of  cannon  joined  its  congratu- 
latory note  at  the  grand  success.  But  the  further 
stages  remained.  At  midnight  the  pontoons  were  all 
cleared  away,  and  the  huge,  hollow  beam  hung  silent 
over  the  surging  water.  It  rested  on  the  shelves  or 
beds  prepared  for  it  at  either  end.  The  second  great 
operation,  of  course,  was  to  haul  it  up  the  towers  to 
its  permanent  position.  This  was  to  be  performed  by 
hydraulic  machinery  of  great  power,  and  Mr.  Stephen- 
son's  instructions  were  to  raise  it  a  short  distance  at 
a  time,  and  then  build  under  it. 

He  took  every  imaginable  precaution  against  accident 
or  failure  ;  and  well  was  it  that  he  did  so,  for  an  acci- 
dent happened  which,  but  for  the  careful  building 
under  the  tube  in  the  towers  as  it  was  raised,  would 
have  been  most  calamitous.  The  accident  occurred 
while  Mr.  Stephenson  was  absent  in  London.  One 
day,  suddenly,  while  the  machinery  was  at  work 

H 


114  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

raising  the  tube,  the  bottom  burst  from  one  of  the 
hydraulic  presses,  and  down  fell  the  tube  on  to  the 
bed  provided  for  it. 

Though  the  fall  was  but  nine  inches,  tons  weight  of 
metal  castings  were  crushed,  and  the  mighty  tube 
itself  was  strained  and  slightly  bent.  But  it  was 
serviceable  still,  and  the  fact  that  it  stood  the  strain 
so  well  showed  its  great  strength.  It  weighed  some 
five  thousand  tons,  and  for  such  an  immense  weight 
to  fall  even  three-quarters  of  a  foot  was  a  very  severe 
test. 

But  for  Stephenson's  wise  precaution  in  lifting  it 
slowly,  and  building  underneath  it  as  it  was  raised, 
the  tube  would  have  crashed  to  the  bottom  of 
the  water.  As  it  was,  the  accident  cost  £5000 ;  but 
the  tube  was  soon  being  hauled  upward  again.  In  due 
course  the  others  followed,  and  on  the  5th  of  March, 
1850,  Kobert  Stephenson  inserted  the  final  rivet  in  the 
last  tube,  and  the  bridge  was  complete.  He  crossed 
over  with  about  a  thousand  persons,  three  locomotives 
whirling  them  along. 

The  tubes  of  the  bridge  are  made  of  iron  plates,  and 
at  the  top  and  bottom  are  a  number  of  small  cells  or 
tubes — instead  of  thick  iron  plating — which  assist  in 
giving  strength  to  the  whole  gigantic  tube.  Thus  it 
may  be  said  the  floor  and  roof  are  tubular,  as  well  as 
the  body.  These  hollow  cells  appear  to  have  been 
Fairbairn's  invention.  The  size  of  the  tube  grows 
slightly  larger  at  the  middle  by  the  Britannia  tower, 
where  externally  the  tubes  are  30  feet  high,  and  26 
internally,  while  they  are  22f  feet  and  18f  feet  at  the 
abutments.  The  width  is  14  feet,  8  inches  externally, 
and  13  feet  5  inches  inside. 

At  the  Britannia  tower  the  tubes  are  placed  solidly 
on  their  bed,  but  at  the  abutments,  and  at  the  land 
towers,  the  tubes  rest  on  roller-beds.  This  arrange- 
ment was  adopted  to  permit  of  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion. Iron,  of  course,  solid  and  unyielding  as  it  appears, 
is  yet  very  susceptible  to  warmth,  and  the  effect  of  the 


A   NEW    IDEA — THE    BRITANNIA   TUBULAR.        115 

sun's  rays  on  this  massive  iron  structure  is  very  marked. 
A  rise  of  temperature  causes  it  to  expand  in  a  com- 
paratively short  time,  and  it  is  said  that  the  tubes 
occasionally  move  two  and  a-half  inches  as  the  sun 
gleams  upon  them.  Mr.  Edwin  Clark  observed  the 
effect  of  the  sun  on  the  iron,  which  appears  in  a  small 
degree  to  be  always  moving  as  the  temperature  varies. 
Well,  therefore,  that  the  able  engineer  planned  an 


WHIMPE.S. 


THE   BRITANNIA   TUBULAR   BRIDGE. 


arrangement  allowing  for  this  constant  expansion  and 
contraction  of  the  iron  mass. 

The  Britannia  Bridge  was  a  great  triumph  for  Robert 
Stephenson.  He  appears  first  to  have  seized  the  idea, 
and,  assisted  no  doubt  by  Fairbairn's  experiments  and 
by  able  coadjutors,  he  carried  it  through  to  a  success- 
ful completion.  He  was  of  course  the  son  of  George 
Stephenson,  who  had  done  so  much  for  the  locomotive, 
and  according  to  Smiles,  "  he  almost  worshipped  his 


116  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

father's  memory,  and  was  ever  ready  to  attribute  to 
him  the  chief  merit  of  his  own  achievements  as  an 
engineer." 

"  It  was  his  thorough  training,"  Mr.  Smiles  once 
heard  him  remark,  "  his  example,  and  his  character, 
which  made  me  the  man  I  am."  Further,  in  an 
address  as  President  of  the  Institution  of  Civil 
Engineers,  in  January,  1856,  he  said  :  "  All  I  know, 
and  all  I  have  done  is  primarily  due  to  the  parent 
whose  memory  I  cherish  and  revere." 

That  father  had  died  before  the  Britannia  Bridge  was 
completed,  though  he  had  been  present  at  the  floating 
of  the  first  tube  at  Conway.  The  great  engineer  passed 
away  on  the  12th  of  August,  1848,  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
seven,  and  his  distinguished  son  Robert,  who  had  no 
children,  only  survived  him  by  eleven  years. 

But  before  he  died  he  had  designed,  and  Mr.  A.  M. 
Ross,  who  had  assisted  at  the  Conway  Bridge,  had 
assisted  in  carrying  out  the  celebrated  Victoria  Tubular 
Bridge  over  the  great  St.  Lawrence  River  at  Montreal. 

This  bridge  was  for  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway  of 
Canada,  and  for  immense  length  and  vastness  of  pro- 
portions, combined  with  magnificent  strength,  is  one 
of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  It  is  five  times  as  long  as 
the  Britannia  Bridge,  being  not  far  short  of  two  miles. 
It  has  a  big  central  span  of  330  feet,  and  twenty-four 
spans  of  242  feet.  The  iron  tubes  are  suspended  sixty 
feet  above  the  water  beneath. 

One  great  difficulty  in  the  problem  was  the  ice. 
Immense  quantities  come  down  in  the  spring,  and  to 
resist  this  enormous  pressure  the  piers  are  most  massive, 
containing  thousands  of  tons  each  of  solid  masonry. 
These  piers  are  based  on  the  solid  rock,  the  two  central 
towers  being  eighteen  feet  in  width  and  the  others 
fifteen  feet.  To  protect  them  from  the  ice,  huge 
guards  made  of  stone  blocks  clamped  with  rivets  built 
up  in  the  form  of  an  incline  were  placed  before  the  piers 
on  the  up-stream  side.  The  bridge  was  begun  in  July, 
1854,  and  occupied  four  and  a-half  years  in  construe- 


117 


\T\8 

or  i 


/»       or 


LATTICE    AND    SUSPENSION    BRIDGES.  119 

tion,  it  being  completed  in  December,  1859,  about  two 
months  after  its  designer  had  died. 

Gigantic  though  this  structure  is,  and  great  as  is  the 
honour  which  it  reflects  on  Robert  Stephenson  and  the 
resident  and  joint  engineer  Mr.  Ross,  yet  with  the 
exception  of  the  remarkable  and  massive  ice-guards 
to  the  piers,  it  does  not  differ  materially  from  the 
Britannia  and  Conway  Tubular  Bridges.  These  were 
the  first  famous  examples  of  the  new  principle. 

Why,  then,  are  massive  tubular  bridges  not  more 
generally  built  ?  Because  they  led  to  another  and  very 
natural  development  in  bridge-building,  a  development 
whereby  great  strength  for  long  spans  is  gained,  with, 
however,  a  marked  saving  both  in  labour  and  in  material. 
That  development  was  the  lattice  bridge. 


CHAPTER  III 

LATTICE  AND   SUSPENSION  BRIDGES. 

"  ri^HE  expense  of  a  tubular  bridge  would  be  too 
great." 

JL  "  But  if  we  could  get  the  strength  without 
the  expense." 

"  What  mean  you  ? " 

"By  iron  lattice  work  we  could,  I  think,  gain  the 
stiffness  and  support  needed,  without  such  great  cost 
of  labour  and  material.  In  other  words,  I  propose 
a  lattice  or  trellis  work  girder,  instead  of  a  solid  sided, 
or  a  tubular  girder." 

"  That  is,  you  would  have  the  sides  of  lattice  or  trellis 
work,  instead  of  solid  plates  ? " 

"  Exactly.  I  would  use  bars  of  iron  placed  diagonally. 
These  lattice  or  trellis  bridges  are  developed  from  the 
tubular  bridges,  also  from  the  loose  wooden  lattice 
bridges  of  America.  We  make  a  web  of  iron  instead 


120  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

of  a  solid  sheet.  The  same  kind  of  structures  are 
largely  used  over  the  wide  rivers  of  India.  Sir  John 
MacNeill  designed  the  first  in  iron,  and  it  was  built  in 
1843  on  the  Dublin  and  Drogheda  Railway  with  a  span 
of  eighty-four  feet.  I  consider  they  will  be  among  the 
most  popular  bridges  of  the  future  for  longish  spans." 

The  engineer's  prediction  has  come  true ;  for  lattice 
bridges  have  undoubtedly  been  very  widely  adopted. 
We  may  suppose  that  he  was  advising  the  directors 
of  a  proposed  railway,  and  we  doubt  not  but  that  he 
carried  the  day. 

A  fine  specimen  of  a  lattice  bridge  is  that  across 
the  Thames  near  Charing  Cross,  for  the  South-Eastern 
Railway.  It  has  a  total  length  of  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  mile — viz.,  1365  feet,  and  six  of  its  nine  spans  are 
154  feet  wide.  Two  principal  girders,  fourteen  feet 
deep,  are  connected  transversely  by  other  girders  which 
carry  the  rails  and  project  on  the  other  side  to  support 
a  footpath.  The  two  main  girders  are  nearly  fifty  feet 
apart  and  one  weighs  190  tons. 

The  sides  have  upper  and  lower  booms  made  of  plate 
iron  connected  by  perpendicular  bars,  between  which 
are  a  couple  of  bars  crossing  each  other  diagonally  at 
an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees,  and  fixed  to  the  booms 
by  bolts  of  five  and  seven  inches  in  diameter. 

The  old  Hungerford  Bridge  stood  here  previously, 
and  its  two  piers  of  brickwork  were  used  for  the  new 
bridge.  Other  piers  are  huge  cylinders  of  cast  iron  ten 
feet  across,  but  fourteen  feet  in  diameter  in  the  ground. 
Thus  they  are  broadly  based.  These  piers  are  filled 
with  concrete  and  also  brickwork,  and  are  topped  with 
bearing-blocks  of  granite.  They  are  formed  of  plates 
of  cast  iron  bolted  together,  and  they  were  sunk  into 
the  ground  many  feet  below  high -water  by  combined 
forces ;  divers  scooped  out  the  mud  and  gravel  and 
clay  from  within  the  cylinders ;  water  was  pumped  out 
and  heavy  weights  pressed  them  down.  The  piers 
became  fixed  on  the  London  clay,  but  when  filled 
were  heavily  weighted  to  drive  them  down  again,  and 


LATTICE    AND    SUSPENSION    BRIDGES.  121 

finally  they  were  forced  to  a  depth  of  over  sixty- two 
feet  below  high-water  mark. 

But  before  lattice  girder  bridges  had  become  so 
popular,  another  class  had  come  into  use,  and  afford 
some  splendid  specimens  of  engineering  skill.  These 
are  suspension  bridges,  and,  perhaps  of  all  kinds,  they 
are  the  most  picturesque.  Their  graceful  sweeps  and 
curves  yield  perhaps  a  more  pleasing  sight  for  the  eye 
than  the  solid,  rigid,  straight  lines  of  the  girder  bridges. 

It  was  the  genius  of  Thomas  Telford  which  gave  a 
great  impetus  to  this  class  of  bridge.  Like  Stephenson 
after  him,  he  had  to  bridge  the  surging  Menai  Straits, 
but  for  a  carriage  road,  not  a  line  of  rails ;  and  at 
length,  after  various  plans  had  been  suggested  and 
abandoned,  he  proposed  the  Suspension  Bridge. 

Now,  in  its  simplest  form,  a  suspension  bridge  has 
been  known  for  ages.  It  is  merely  a  pathway,  or  even 
a  small  movable  car,  suspended  from  a  rope  or  ropes 
across  a  chasm.  Ulloa  describes  suspension  bridges 
built  by  the  Peruvians  in  South  America.  Four  stout 
cables  span  a  river,  and  on  these  four  is  placed  the  plat- 
form of  sticks  and  branches,  while  two  other  ropes  con- 
nected with  the  platform  are  useful  as  hand  rails.  Such 
bridges  sway  with  the  wind  and  move  with  the  passen- 
ger, but  for  light  loads  they  appear  to  be  perfectly 


In  Telford's  Menai  Bridge  the  carriage  way  is  hung 
from  four  huge  chains  or  cables,  each  chain  made  up  of 
four  others,  and  passing  over  high  piers.  The  chains 
are  anchored  on  the  landward  side,  sixty  feet  in  pits, 
and  grafted  by  iron  frames  to  the  rocks.  The  chains 
are  so  complex  and  so  strong,  that  parts  may  be 
removed  for  repair  without  imperilling  the  safety  of  the 
structure.  The  length  of  the  span  thus  gained  is  560 
feet,  and  it  is  150  feet  above  high-water.  The 
remainder  of  the  bridge  is  composed  of  arches  of  stone, 
of  52|  feet  span. 

The  piers  from  which  the  great  span  is  suspended 
rise  above  the  carriage-way  fifty-two  feet,  and  are  topped 


122 


ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 


by  blocks  of  cast-iron,  which  can  move  on  rollers  to  per- 
mit the  chains  passing  over  them  to  expand  and 
contract  freely  with  the  temperature.  There  are  two 
carriage-roads,  and  also  a  footpath.  The  roads  are 
separated  by  iron  lattice  work,  which  also  gives  them 
stability  and  decreases  vibration. 

In  its  day,  this  stupendous  bridge  was  as  great  a  won- 
der as  its  later  companion  over  the  same  Straits — the 


THE   CLIFTON   BRIDGE. 


Britannia  Tubular.  Six  years  were  occupied  in  build- 
ing, and  it  was  opened  in  1825.  Why,  then,  did  not 
Stephenson  construct  a  similar  bridge  when,  twenty 
years  or  so  later,  he  had  to  solve  a  similar  problem  ? 

The  answer  is,  that  suspension  bridges  are  not — or 
were  not — considered  sufficiently  strong  and  rigid  for 
railway  work.  In  America,  however,  they  have  been 
used  for  this  purpose;  witness  the  famous  Niagara 
Suspension  Bridge,  2J  miles  below  the  Falls,  and 


LATTICE    AND    SUSPENSION    BRIDGES. 


123 


with  a  superb  span  of  822  feet;  but  American 
engineers  appear  to  stiffen  the  roadway  considerably,  so 
as  to  distribute  the  stress  of  the  rushing  train  over 
a  large  portion  of  the  cable.  The  Niagara  Bridge  is 
not  supported  by  plate-link  chains,  but  by  four  immense 
wire  cables,  stretching  from  cliff  to  cliff  over  the  roaring 
rapids.  Four  thousand  distinct  wires  make  up  each 
cable,  which  pass  over  lofty  piers,  and  from  them  hangs 
the  railway  by  numerous  rods. 

Probably  the  famous  Brooklyn  Bridge  is  the  largest 


THE   BROOKLYN  BRIDGE. 


suspension  bridge  in  the  world,  even  as  the  Clifton 
Suspension  Bridge,  in  England,  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting.  The  Brooklyn  Bridge  has  a  magnificent 
central  span  of  1595J  feet  over  the  East  River  between 
Brooklyn  and  New  York ;  further,  there  are  two  land 
spans  of  930  feet,  which,  together  with  the  approaches, 
make  up  a  total  of  about  a  mile  and  a  furlong.  The 
cables,  four  in  number,  are  each  composed  of  5000  steel 
wires,  and  measure  15f  inches  in  diameter.  They  are 
anchored  to  solid  stone  structures  at  either  end,  measur- 


124  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

ing  119  feet  by  132  feet,  and  weighing  60,000  tons; 
while  the  towers  from  which  the  main  span  is  sus- 
pended rise  to  the  height  of  276  feet,  and  are  embedded 
in  the  ground  80  feet  below  high-water.  It  has  been 
estimated  that  the  weight  hung  between  these  towers 
is  nearly  7000  tons. 

The  roadway  of  the  bridge  is  divided  into  five 
thoroughfares.  Those  on  the  outer  sides  are  for 
vehicles,  and  are  19  feet  wide ;  the  centre  is  for  foot- 
passengers,  and  is  15  J  feet  in  width;  while  the  two 
others  are  for  tramway  traffic.  The  bridge  was  opened 
in  1883,  and  affords  a  great  triumph  of  engineering  skill. 

Much  smaller,  but  none  the  less  interesting,  is  the 
Suspension  Bridge  at  Clifton.  As  far  back  as  1753, 
Alderman  William  Vick,  of  Bristol,  left  a  sum  of  £1000 
to  build  a  bridge  at  Clifton.  The  sum  was  to  lie  at 
compound  interest  until  £10,000  was  reached.  How- 
ever, the  money  was  increased  by  subscriptions,  and  in 
1830  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  obtained  for  its  con- 
struction. 

The  work  coming  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  I.  K.  Brunei, 
he  designed  a  bridge  of  702  feet  span,  and  250  feet 
above  high-water.  The  piers  and  abutments  were 
built,  but  lack  of  cash,  which  forms  an  obstacle  to  so 
many  brilliant  enterprises,  stopped  the  progress  of  the 
bridge  for  nearly  fourteen  years. 

Then  it  occurred  that  the  Hungerford  Suspension 
Bridge  was  to  be  removed  to  make  way  for  the  Charing 
Cross  Railway  Bridge,  so  the  chains  were  purchased  at 
a  comparatively  small  cost,  and  the  work  at  Clifton  pro- 
ceeded, and  was  finally  completed. 

Three  chains  on  either  side  suspend  long  wrought- 
iron  girders,  which  help  to  stiffen  the  platform ;  and 
cross  girders  between  support  the  floor.  The  chains 
pass  over  rollers  on  the  piers,  and  are  ultimately 
anchored  to  plates  bedded  in  brick-work  abutting  on 
rock.  The  platform  is  hung  by  upright  rods  from  the 
chains,  and  hand-railing  is  used  with  lattice- work,  to 
assist  in  rendering  it  rigid.  The  roadway,  twenty  feet 


THE    GREATEST    BRIDGE    IN    THE    WORLD.        125 

wide,  is  made  of  creosoted  wood,  five  inches  thick,  while 
the  pathways  on  either  side  are  made  with  wood  half  as 
thick.  Between  the  piers  the  weight  of  the  structure, 
including  the  chains,  amounts  to  nearly  a  thousand 
tons. 

In  all  these  suspension  bridges,  however  large,  the 
principles  are  much  the  same.  The  platform,  or  road- 
way, is  hung  from  chains  or  cables,  which  pass  over  piers 
and  are  anchored  fast  at  the  ends.  Some  are  stiffened 
with  girders  and  bracing  to  prevent  undue  undulation. 
The  chains  take  a  graceful  and  definite  curve,  that  of 
the  Menai  Bridge  dipping  fifty-seven  feet.  The  strain 
is  the  greatest  at  the  lower  part,  and  is  increased,  should 
the  chain  be  drawn  flatter  over  the  same  space.  These 
bridges  became  widely  adopted. 

But  there  came  a  time  when  none  of  the  bridges  in 
vogue  seemed  to  give  what  was  required.  A  new  prin- 
ciple was  wanted.  Where  was  it  to  be  found  ? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   GREATEST   BRIDGE   IN   THE   WORLD. 

HAVE  you  heard  the  news  ?     The  Tay  Bridge  is 
blown  down ! " 
"  Yes.    A  terrible  disaster.     I  should  think 
they  would  give  up  their  scheme  of  bridging 
the  Firth  of  Forth  after  that." 

"  Not  they  !  The  scheme  may  be  altered,  but  bridge 
it  they  will.  Engineers  never  give  in." 

The  comments  of  these  newspaper  readers  were 
right.  The  Tay  Bridge,  the  longest  in  the  world,  had 
been  blown  down  one  wild  December  night  in  1879, 
and  girders,  towers,  and  the  train  which  was  rushing 
over  it,  were  suddenly  hurled  into  the  surging  flood. 


12G  ENGINEERS   AND   THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

At  that  time  a  scheme  was  in  hand  to  bridge  the 
Forth  for  the  North  British  Railway  system,  and  Sir 
Thomas  Bouch  had  proposed  two  suspension  bridges 
hung  by  steel  chains.  But  ultimately  a  new  design 
altogether  was  adopted,  the  plan  being  by  Sir  Benjamin 
Baker  and  Sir  John  Fowler. 

It  was  the  new  principle — or,  rather,  a  remarkable 
development  of  an  old  principle — for  which  the  bridge- 
making  world  was  waiting :  the  principle,  namely,  of 
the  cantilever. 

A  cantilever  is,  in  fact,  a  bracket ;  and  Sir  Benjamin 
Baker  has  described  it  as  such.  It  is  a  strong  support, 
built  out  from  a  firm  base,  and  is  like  a  powerful 
and  magnified  bracket  upholding  a  shelf. 

In  the  Forth  Bridge  there  are  two  huge  spans,  1700 
feet  wide,  crossed  by  these  cantilevers ;  bridging  chan- 
nels of  some  200  feet  deep. 

The  longest  spans  on  the  Tay  Bridge  were  245  feet ; 
it  was  over  two  miles  long,  and  had  ninety  spans.  It 
was  an  iron  girder  bridge,  and  was  opened  on  the  31st 
of  May,  1878.  Not  to  be  beaten,  however,  after  the 
panic  had  subsided,  another  and  more  stable  bridge 
was  constructed,  also  a  girder,  but  not  so  high  in 
elevation,  and  sixty  feet  further  up  the  river.  It  was 
opened  in  1887,  and  is  10,779  feet  long,  with  85  piers, 
the  navigable  channel  being  under  four  of  the  spans, 
the  centre  spans  being  245  feet  wide. 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  the  cantilevers  at  the 
Forth  Bridge  cover  very  much  wider  spans;  and  the 
channel  being  so  deep,  the  impossibility  of  building 
piers  will  also  be  obvious.  The  best  place  for  the 
bridge  was  marked  by  the  projection  of  the  Inver- 
keithing  peninsula  on  the  north  shore,  and  also 
the  Inchgarvie  rock  in  the  channel  itself.  The  penin- 
sula brought  the  two  shores  together,  reducing  the 
space  to  be  bridged,  and  the  rock  gave  firm  support 
for  a  pier.  Still  there  were  the  two  immense  spans 
of  1700  feet  to  be  crossed,  and  the  engineers  decided 
on  the  cantilever  principle.  Thus,  though  the  Tay 


THE  GREATEST  BRIDGE  IN  THE  WORLD.   127 

Bridge  was  the  longest  in  the  world,  the  Forth  pre- 
sented by  far  the  greatest  spans — viz.,  the  two  main 
spans  of  1700  feet  each,  in  addition  to  which  there  are 
two  of  675  feet  each,  and  fifteen  of  168  feet  each. 

The  total  length  of  this  magnificent  bridge,  which 
Sir  Benjamin  Baker  rightly  claimed  was  the  most 
wonderful  in  the  world,  is  somewhat  over  1J  miles  in 
length,  or  8296  feet,  including  the  piers,  while  almost  a 
mile  is  bridged  by  the  huge  and  superb  cantilevers. 
This  is,  perhaps,  the  great  marvel.  The  clear  space 
under  the  centre  is  no  less  than  152  feet  at  high- water, 
while  the  highest  portion  is  361  feet  above  the  same 
mark. 

And  now,  how  was  this  great  bridge  constructed? 
Workshops  were  erected  at  South  Queensferry,  and 
the  mammoth  cantilevers  were  put  up  there  piece  by 
piece.  They  were  fitted  together  and  then  taken  plate 
by  plate  to  the  bridge  itself.  The  shops  were  lit  by 
electricity,  and  furnished  with  appliances  for  bending, 
cutting,  moulding,  holing,  and  planing  plates.  The 
workshops  were  surrounded  by  quite  a  maze  of  rail- 
ways. 

But  what  of  the  piers,  without  which  all  these 
preparations  would  be  unavailing  ?  Now  the  founda- 
tions of  piers  are  usually  laid  by  means  of  cofferdams ; 
that  is,  piles  of  timber  are  driven  down  through  the 
water  into  the  bed  of  the  river  close  together,  and  the 
interstices  filled  with  clay ;  or  a  casing  of  iron  may  be 
used  instead.  The  water  in  the  enclosure  thus  formed 
can  be  pumped  out  and  excavation  proceeded  with,  and 
the  foundations  laid.  Cofferdams  are  sometimes  made 
of  iron  boxes  or  caissons  with  interstices  fitted  with 
felt,  and  caissons  of  this  kind  about  12J  feet  long  and 
7  feet  wide  were  used  in  constructing  the  Victoria 
Embankment  on  the  Thames. 

But  with  certain  of  the  piers  for  the  Forth  Bridge 
the  water  was  too  deep  for  timber  cofferdams,  and  the 
usual  diving-bell  was  not  sufficiently  large.  The  piers 
were  to  be  of  immense  size,  no  less  than  55  feet  in 


128  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

diameter,  and  the  diving-bell  of  ordinary  size  would  not 
cover  that  great  width. 

Huge  caissons  were  therefore  made,  70  feet  wide, 
constructed  of  iron  plates  and  rising  in  height,  accord- 
ing to  the  depth  of  water,  up  to  150  feet.  The  lower 
part  of  the  immense  caisson  or  tank  wa,s  fitted  as  a 
water-tight  division  and  filled  with  compressed  air,  the 
object  being  to  resist  the  pressure  of  the  water.  Two 
shafts  communicated  with  this  air-tight  division  or 
mining  chamber,  one  for  the  removal  of  the  earth 
excavated,  and  the  other  for  the  men  to  pass  up  and 
down.  The  escape  of  the  air  through  the  shafts  was 
prevented  by  the  use  of  an  air-lock,  working  on  the 
same  principle  as  a  water-lock  on  rivers  or  canals. 
There  were  two  doors  in  the  lock,  one  communicating 
with  the  shaft  and  the  other  with  the  outside  air. 
When  the  latter  was  closed  and  the  lock  filled  with 
compressed  air  by  opening  a  valve  or  tap,  the  door  of 
the  shaft  could  be  opened  and  the  man  could  descend 
to  his  work  below. 

That  work  consisted  chiefly  of  excavation  in  the  bed 
of  the  river.  Drills,  hydraulic  cutters,  and  dynamite 
blasting  were  all  utilised  until  huge  holes,  many  feet 
below  the  river  bed,  were  hollowed  out.  As  the  caisson 
was  filled  with  concrete  above  the  air-tight  chamber 
where  the  men  worked  it  was  exceedingly  heavy,  and 
sank  by  its  own  weight  into  the  space  prepared. 

The  mining  chamber  was  lit  by  electricity,  and  was 
about  seven  feet  high.  The  mad  of  the  river  bed  was 
mixed  with  water  and  blown  away  by  the  compressed 
air  which  seems  to  have  been  about  33  Ibs.  to  the 
square  inch.  The  caissons  were  sunk  down  to  rock  or 
boulder  clay,  and  when  they  had  reached  the  required 
distance  the  mining  chamber  was  filled  with  concrete, 
arid  the  same  material  used  to  the  level  of  the  water ; 
the  piers  were  then  built  up  with  huge  stones  placed  in 
cement,  the  whole  forming  a  magnificent  mass  of  con- 
crete and  masonry,  carried  down  in  some  cases  to  about 
40  feet  below  the  bed  of  the  river. 


129 


THE    GREATEST    BRIDGE    IN    THE    WORLD.         131 

The  three  chief  piers  consist  of  groups  of  four 
columns  of  masonry,  each  gradually  tapering  from  55 
feet  in  diameter  to  49  feet  at  the  top,  and  about  36  feet 
high.  From  these  rise  the  huge  cantilevers  connected 
together  by  girders  350  feet  in  length. 

The  centre  of  these  three  main  piers  rests  on  the 
island  of  Inchgarvie ;  the  two  others  are  known  as  the 
Fife  and  the  Queensferry  piers  respectively,  and  are 
placed  on  the  side  of  the  deep  water  channels.  In 
addition  to  these  three  main  piers  are  several  others, 
some  in  shallow  water  and  some  on  land.  The  part  of 
the  bridge  which  they  carry  is  an  ordinary  girder  of 
steel  leading  to  the  immense  cantilevers.  For  founding 
the  shallow  water  piers,  cofferdams  were  used;  the 
caissons  with  compressed  air  chambers  being  for  the 
deep  water  structures. 

They  were  put  together  on  shore,  launched,  floated, 
steered  to  the  desired  position,  and  sunk.  One  proved 
cranky  and  turned  over,  and  was  only  brought  right 
after  much  expense  and  difficulty. 

The  cantilevers  are  bolted  down  to  each  pier  by 
numbers  of  huge  steel  ties,  24  feet  in  length  and  2J 
inches  in  diameter,  embedded  in  the  masonry,  there 
being  48  of  these  bolts  or  ties  to  each  column.  And 
now  as  to  these  cantilevers. 

Four  huge  tubular  shafts,  two  on  each  side,  rise  from 
the  group  of  columns  forming  each  pier,  to  the  height 
of  350  feet.  From  these  shafts,  which  slope  slightly 
inward,  project  the  cantilevers,  the  upper  and  lower 
parts  being  strongly  braced  together  by  diagonal  ties. 
In  shape  the  gigantic  brackets  taper  towards  a  point, 
the  width  decreasing  as  much  as  from  120  feet  at  the 
commencement  of  the  piers  to  32  feet  at  the  ends. 
The  wind,  it  is  believed,  will  be  more  effectually 
resisted  by  this  means. 

The  cantilevers  are  hung  back  to  back,  one  to  some 
extent  counter-weighing  the  other.  The  component 
parts  consist  of  cylinders  of  steel  or  struts  for  resisting 
compression — these  are  the  lower  parts  ;  and  ties  of 


132  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

lattice-work  made  of  steel  plates  for  resisting  tension, 
— placed  above. 

Thus,  then,  from  each  of  the  three  chief  piers  two 
pairs  of  gigantic  brackets  project,  each  pair  placed  side 
by  side  and  braced  together,  and  forming  one  composite 
cantilever  jutting  to  the  north  and  one  to  the  south. 
The  rails  run  on  sleepers  placed  lengthwise  and  fixed  in 
troughs  of  steel,  so  that  should  a  train  run  off  the  line 
the  wheels  will  be  caught  by  these  supports. 

It  is  calculated  that  there  are  about  45,000  tons  of 
steel  in  the  bridge,  and  120,000  cubic  yards  of  masonry 
in  the  piers.  The  contract  price  was  £1,600,000,  which 
works  out  at  about  £215  per  foot;  and  the  contractors, 
who  were  able  to  obtain  an  admirable  organisation  of 
some  2000  men  to  carry  out  the  magnificent  design, 
were  Messrs.  Tancred,  Arrol,  &  Co.  Some  special  tools 
for  use  in  the  work  were  planned  by  Sir  William  Arrol. 
The  bridge  was  opened  by  the  Prince  of  Wales  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1890. 

The  success  of  this  magnificent  structure  has  assured 
the  wider  adoption  of  the  cantilever  principle.  Long- 
span  bridges,  in  several  cases,  have  since  been  built  on 
this  design.  Its  engineers  may  claim  indeed  to  have 
widened  the  scope  and  possibilites  of  bridge-build- 
ing. 

Still,  when  another  bridge  was  wanted  over  the 
Thames,  at  a  busy  spot,  crowded  with  shipping  and 
near  the  historic  Tower  of  London,  another  kind  of 
structure  was  adopted.  What  was  it  ? 


THE    TOWER    BRIDGE.  133 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE   TOWER  BRIDGE. 

WHY  should  they  not  have  a  drawbridge  ? " 
"  What !     To  draw  up  from  each  bank  of 
the  river?" 

"No,  I  did  not  mean  that  exactly.  Could 
they  not  get  piers  farther  in  towards  the  centre  of 
the  stream,  and  let  the  drawbridge  rise  and  fall  from 
them?" 

"  The  river  is  too  crowded  for  many  piers." 

"  It  is.  Bat  I  cannot  help  thinking  a  drawbridge — 
a  bascule  bridge  as  the  engineers  call  it — is  the  best 
solution  of  the  difficulty." 

"  Well,  a  bridge  is  wanted  sufficiently  low  to  spring 
from  the  flat  banks  of  the  Thames  for  foot  passengers 
and  carriage  traffic,  and  yet  sufficiently  high  to  permit 
tall  ships  to  pass  underneath." 

"  And  apparently  these  two  requirements  are  in- 
compatible." 

"  Not  altogether,"  remarks  a  third  speaker. 

"  You  are  partly  right  in  your  idea  of  a  drawbridge. 
That  is  Sir  Horace  Jones's  idea.  And,  further,  there 
is  literally  to  be  a  high  and  also  a  low-level  bridge ; 
for  there  are  to  be  two  levels — that  is,  two  roadways — 
one  at  a  high,  and  one  at  a  low,  level  across  the  middle 
span." 

"And  is  the  low  level  to  be  a  drawbridge — a  road- 
way that  can  be  drawn  up  to  permit  vessels  to  pass  ? 
Is  that  so  ? " 

"  Exactly.  And  this  drawbridge  will  be  in  two  parts, 
one  on  either  side;  they  will  be  worked  from  two 
massive  piers  giving  a  clear  span  of  200  feet  in  the 
middle  of  the  stream,  through  which  span  big  vessels 
can  pass.  The  usual  traffic  of  the  river  will  be  able  to 
pass  even  when  the  drawbridges  are  down." 


134  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

"And  above  the  bascules  or  drawbridges  will  run  the 
high-level  bridge  ? " 

"Yes,  a  girder  bridge  for  footpaths,  and  people 
will  reach  it  by  lifts  and  staircases  in  the  piers — which, 
by-the-by,  will  be  more  like  huge  towers.  These 
towers  will  also  contain  the  machinery  for  raising  and 
lowering  the  drawbridges." 

"  And  what  sort  of  bridge  will  be  Used  for  the  other 
spans — that  is,  to  cross  the  river  between  the  piers  and 
the  shore  ? " 

"Suspension  bridges;  so  that  the  Tower  Bridge  as 
it  will  be  called,  for  it  will  cross  the  Thames  by  the 
Tower  of  London,  will  embody  the  suspension,  the 
bascule  (or  drawbridge),  and  the  girder  bridge  prin- 
ciples, while  in  the  centre  will  be  two  levels." 

"  It  promises  to  be  a  splendid  piece  of  work." 

"  It  does.  And  it  is  very  much  needed,  for  the  con- 
gestion of  traffic  on  London  Bridge  is  terrible." 

"  And  people  have  often  to  come  round  a  long  way  to 
reach  it." 

The  promise  of  the  Tower  Bridge,  as  set  forth  by 
these  speakers,  has  been  amply  fulfilled.  It  is  indeed 
a  fine  piece  of  work ;  and  although  it  does  not  embody 
any  new  idea,  yet  in  its  combination  and  development 
of  old  principles  and  in  its  size  it  is  very  remarkable. 
It  was  opened  in  June,  1894,  and  is,  or  was  at  the  time 
of  building,  the  biggest  bascule  bridge  in  the  world. 

Within  its  handsome  Gothic  towers  are  steel  columns 
of  immense  strength,  constituting  the  chief  supports  of 
the  suspension  bridges  and  of  the  high-level  footways. 
The  architect  was  the  late  Sir  Horace  Jones,  and  the 
engineer  Mr.  J.  Wolfe  Barrv,  while  the  cost  was,  includ- 
ing land,  about  £1,170,000." 

The  problem  was  to  combine  a  low-level  bridge  pro- 
viding for  ordinary  town  traffic  with  a  high  level, 
under  which  ships  could  pass,  and  it  was  accomplished 
by  a  union  of  principles.  In  its  oldest  shape  the  draw- 
bridge was  probably  a  huge  piece  of  timber,  which  was 
hauled  up  and,  let  down  by  chains  over  the  moats  of 


THE    TOWER   BRIDGE.  135 

castles.  In  the  Tower  Bridge  there  are  two  of  such  huge 
"flaps"  or  leaves,  each  about  100  feet  long,  one  rising 
and  falling  from  each  pier  and  meeting  in  the  centre. 
Large  bascule  bridges  are  usually  constructed  in  this 
manner,  and  there  is  an  excellent  specimen  over  the 
Ouse,  for  the  passage  of  the  North-Eastern  railway ; 
one  man  at  each  half  of  the  bridge  can  raise  it  in  less 
than  two  minutes.  Another  fine  bascule  may  be  seen 
at  Copenhagen. 

The  bascules  are  raised  and  lowered  by  chains,  which, 
in  the  case  of  the  Tower  Bridge,  are  worked  by  superb 
hydraulic  power  from  the  massive  pier  towers.  When 
drawn  up,  which  is  done  in  less  than  five  minutes,  the 
bascules  are  even  with  the  sides  of  the  towers,  and  full 
space  is  given  for  the  vessels  to  pass. 

The  two  side  spans  of  the  bridge,  crossed  by  the 
suspension  bridges,  are  wider  than  the  centre,  being 
270  feet  each,  and  the  total  length  of  the  whole  bridge 
is  800  feet  between  the  abutments.  There  are  also 
piers  on  the  shoreward  side  for  carrying  the  chains  of 
the  suspension  bridges  at  each  extremity. 

The  massive  tower  piers,  sunk  27  feet  below  the 
river  bed,  are  built  of  gray  granite,  and  are  also  fitted 
with  strong  breakwaters  to  resist  the  action  of  the  tide. 
The  high-level  bridges  across  the  central  span  are  for 
foot  passengers,  and  are  135  feet  over  high-water  mark. 
The  bascule  bridges,  when  closed  for  vehicular  traffic, 
are  29 1  feet  above  high  water,  while  the  side  suspension 
spans  are  27  feet.  The  roadway  is  50  feet  wide,  which 
is  also  the  width  of  the  approaches.  The  foot  passenger 
traffic  is  never  stopped,  as  persons  can  pass  by  the 
hydraulic  lifts  or  the  stairways  in  the  tower  piers  to 
the  high-level  bridges  above. 

Sir  Horace  Jones  died  before  the  great  work  was 
completed,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  G.  D.  Stevenson, 
who  had  been  his  assistant.  Sir  William  Arrol  &  Co. 
supplied  the  iron  and  steel,  and  Sir  William  Armstrong 
the  hydraulic  machinery.  Various  contractors  carried 
out  different  portions  of  the  mighty  work,  which  occu- 


136  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

pied  about  eight  years  in  building.  Near  by  stands  the 
ancient  Tower  of  London,  looking  not  unkindly  on  the 
great  constructive  effort  to  which  it  has  given  its  name. 

Sometimes  a  bridge  is  made  movable  by  swinging 
it  round  on  a  pivot  instead  of  drawing  it  up  on  a 
hinge  or  axis ;  and  sometimes,  as  in  the  case  of  a 
bridge  over  the  Arun  for  the  Brighton  and  South 
Coast  Railway,  it  is  made  to  slide  on  wheels  backwards 
and  forwards  from  the  abutment.  Floating  or  pontoon 
bridges  are  made  by  placing  planks  on  pontoons,  or 
boats  anchored  by  cables.  The  longest  in  the  world 
is  probably  at  Calcutta,  across  the  Hooghly.  It  is 
1530  feet  in  length,  there  being  twenty-eight  pontoons 
in  pairs.  These  are  of  iron,  160  feet  long,  and  with 
ends  shaped  like  wedges;  they  support  a  road-way  of 
3-inch  timbers,  forty-eight  feet  wide,  and  raised  on 
tressel  work.  An  opening  can  be  made  for  ships  by 
removing  four  pontoons  and  floating  them  clear  of  the 
passage  way. 

Great  bridges  present  some  of  the  most  remarkable 
triumphs  of  the  engineer.  They  rank  beside  the 
express  locomotive  and  the  ocean  liner  as  among  the 
great  constructive  achievements  of  mankind.  Daring 
in  design,  and  bold  in  execution  and  in  sweep  of  span, 
they  have  been  developed  along  several  principles ;  and 
so  solidly  have  they  been  built,  so  sound  are  the  laws  of 
their  being,  that  it  seems  as  though  they  will  live  as 
long  as  the  everlasting  hills. 


m 


REMARKABLE  TUNNELS  AND  THEIR 
CONSTRUCTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HOW  BRUNEL  MADE  A  BORING-SHIELD. 

"  T  WATCHED  the  worm  at  work  and  took  my  idea 
from  that  tiny  creature  ! " 

"  A  worm  !     Was  it  an  ordinary  worm  ? " 
"  Oh  no,  it  was  the  naval  wood-worm — Teredo 
Navalis;    it  can  bore  its  way  through   the   hardest 
timber.     I  was  in  a  dockyard  and  I  saw  the  movements 
of  this  animal  as  it  cut  its  way  through  the  wood,  and 
the  idea  struck  me  that  I  could  produce  some  machine 
of  the  kind  for  successful  tunnelling." 
"  Well,  it  has  been  brilliantly  successful." 
"  I  looked  at  the  animal  closely,  and  found  that  it  was 
covered  with  a  couple  of  valvular  shells  in  front ;  these 
shells  seem  to  act  as  a  shield,  and  after  many  attempts 
I   elaborated   the   boring   shield   which   was   used    in 
hollowing  out  the  Thames  Tunnel."  . 

This  statement,  which  we  can  imagine  to  have  been 
made  by  Sir  Marc  Isambard  Brunei  to  a  friend,  is 
no  doubt  in  substance  quite  true.  A  writer  in  the 

137 


138  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

"  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia  "  says,  that  Sir  M.  I.  Brunei 
informed  him,  "that  the  idea  upon  which  his  new  plan 
of  tunnelling  is  founded,  was  suggested  to  him  by  the 
operations  of  the  Teredo,  a  testaceous  worm,  covered 
with  a  cylindrical  shell,  which  eats  its  way  through 
the  hardest  wood." 

Two  or  three  attempts  had  already  been  made  to 
drive  a  tunnel  under  the  Thames,  but  they  had  ended 
in  failure.  In  1823,  Brunei  came  forward  with  another 
proposal,  and  he  ultimately  succeeded. 

This  illustrious  engineer  must  not  be  confounded 
with  his  son — who  was  also  a  celebrated  engineer — 
Isambard  Kingdom  Brunei.  There  were  two  Brunels, 
father  and  son,  even  as  there  were  two  Stephen  sons, 
George  and  Robert. 

Sir  Marc  Isambard  Brunei,  the  father,  whose  most 
notable  enterprise  was  the  Thames  Tunnel,  was  a 
French  farmer's  son,  and  after  various  experiences  in 
France  and  America  settled  in  England  in  1799,  and 
married  the  daughter  of  William  Kingdom  of  Ply- 
mouth. He  had  already  succeeded  as  an  engineer  so 
well  as  to  be  appointed  chief  engineer  of  New  York,  and 
a  scheme  for  manufacturing  block-pulleys  by  machinery 
for  vessels  was  accepted  by  the  British  Government, 
who  paid  him  £17,000  for  the  invention.  He  was  also 
engaged  in  the  construction  of  Woolwich  Arsenal  and 
Chatham  Dockyard,  etc.,  and  in  1823  he  came  forward 
with  another  proposal  for  the  Thames  Tunnel. 

In  that  same  year,  his  son,  Isambard  Kingdom 
Brunei,  entered  his  father's  office,  and  assisted  in  the 
construction  of  the  tunnel.  The  son  subsequently 
became  engineer  to  the  Great  Western  Railway,  and 
designed  the  Great  Western  steamship. 

But  though  Brunei's  proposal  for  the  tunnel  was 
made  public  in  1823,  the  work  was  not  actually  com- 
menced until  March,  1825.  It  was  to  cross  under  the 
river  from  Wapping  to  Rotherhithe,  and  present  two 
archways.  And  if  you  had  been  down  by  the  Rother- 
hithe bank  of  the  Thames  about  the  latter  date,  you 


HOW    BRUNEL    MADE    A    BORING-SHIELD.         139 

would  have  been  surprised  to  see  that  instead  of 
hollowing  out  a  shaft,  proceedings  began  by  raising  a 
round  tower. 

A  space  was  traced  out,  some  50  feet  across,  and 
bricklayers  began  to  build  a  circular  hollow  tower 
about  3  feet  thick  and  42  feet  high. 

This  tower  was  strengthened  by  iron  bars,  etc.,  and 
then  the  excavation  commenced  within.  The  soil  was 
dug  out  and  raised  by  an  engine  at  the  top,  which  also 
pumped  out  water.  And  as  the  hollow  proceeded,  the 
great  shaft  or  tube  of  masonry  sank  gradually  into  it. 
Bricklayers  added  to  its  summit  until  it  reached  a 
total  height  of  65  feet,  which  in  due  course  was  sunk 
into  the  ground. 

Thus,  then,  the  engineer  had,  to  commence  with,  a 
strong  and  reliable  brickwork  shaft,  3  feet  thick,  by 
which  men  and  materials  could  ascend  and  descend  in 
safety.  A  smaller  shaft  was  also  sunk  deeper  for 
drainage. 

And  now  the  actual  boring  of  the  tunnel  commenced. 
It  was  to  be  38  feet  wide  and  22 \  feet  in  height.  On 
New  Year's  Day,  1826,  the  boring-shield  was  placed 
below  in  the  shaft.  The  shield  was  composed  of  36 
cells,  3  cells  in  height  and  12  in  breadth,  with  a  work- 
man to  each. 

The  huge  "shield"  was  placed  before  the  earth  to 
be  excavated,  and  a  front  board  being  removed,  the 
soil  behind  it  was  dug  out  to  a  specified  extent,  and 
the  board  was  propped  against  the  fresh  surface  thus 
made.  When  the  boards  had  all  been  placed  thus,  the 
cells  were  pushed  forward  into  the  hollow  then  made. 
This  was  accomplished  by  means  of  screws  at  the  top 
and  bottom  of  the  shield,  and  which  were  set  against 
the  completed  brickwork  behind. 

For,  while  the  labourers  were  working  in  front,  the 
bricklayers  behind  built  up  the  sides  and  roof,  and 
formed  the  floor  of  the  tunnel,  the  soil  at  the  roof 
being  supported  by  the  shield  until  the  masons  had 
completed  their  task. 


140  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

For  nine  feet,  the  tunnel  proceeded  through  clay, 
but  then  came  an  unwelcome  change.  Wet,  loose  sand 
prevailed,  and  the  work  progressed  with  peril  for 
thirty-two  days,  when  firmer  ground  was  reached. 
Six  months  passed  and  substantial  headway  was  made, 
the  tunnel  being  completed  to  the  extent  of  260  feet. 

Then,  on  the  14th  of  September,  the  startling  intelli- 
gence came  that  the  engineer  feared  the  river  would 
burst  in  at  the  next  tide.  He  had  found  a  cavity  over 
the  shield.  Sure  enough,  at  high  tide,  when  the  river 
was  brimming  full,  the  workmen  heard  the  ominous 
rattle  of  earth  falling  on  their  shield,  while  gushes  of 
water  followed. 

So  excellent  were  the  precautions,  however,  that  no 
disastrous  effects  followed,  and  Father  Thames  himself 
rolled  earth  or  clay  into  the  hole  and  stopped  it  up. 
It  was  a  warning,  and  emphasised  the  fear  that  haunted 
the  men's  minds  all  through  the  hazardous  undertak- 
ing— the  fear  that  the  river  would  break  through  and 
drown  the  tunnel. 

In  October,  another  small  irruption  took  place,  and 
was  successfully  combated.  Then,  in  the  following 
January  (1827),  some  clay  fell,  but  still  no  overwhelm- 
ing catastrophe  occurred.  The  ground  grew  so  moist, 
however,  that  it  was  examined  on  the  other  side. 
That  is,  the  river  bed  was  inspected  by  the  agency  of  a 
diving  bell,  and  some  ominous  depressions  were  found. 
These  were  promptly  filled  by  bags  of  clay. 

It  may  be  asked,  Why  had  Brunei  not  gone  deeper  ? 
Why  had  he  not  placed  a  greater  thickness  of  earth  or 
clay  between  his  work  and  the  waters  of  the  Thames  ? 

The  answer  is  this — He  had  been  informed  by 
geologists  that  quicksand  prevailed  lower  down,  and 
the  shaft  that  he  sank  for  drainage  below  the  level  of 
the  proposed  tunnel,  indicated  that  this  view  might  be 
correct.  In  fact,  when  he  got  down  80  feet,  the  soil 
gave  way,  and  water  and  sand  rushed  upwards.  He 
was  therefore  apparently  between  the  Thames  and  the 
quicksand.  The  Tower  Subway,  constructed  in  1869, 


UNDER    THE    RIVER.  141 

and  driven  through  the  solid  London  clay,  is,  however, 
60  feet. deep  where  it  commences  at  Tower  Hill. 

Work  went  steadily  forward  at  Brunei's  tunnel  until 
the  18th  of  May.  Mr.  Beamish,  the  assistant  engineer, 
was  in  the  cutting  on  that  day,  and  as  the  tide  rose  he 
observed  the  water  increase  about  the  shield;  clay 
showed  itself  and  gravel  appeared.  He  had  the  clay 
closed  up,  and  went  to  encourage  the  pumpers. 
Suddenly,  before  he  could  get  into  the  cells,  a  great 
rush  of  sludge  and  water  drove  the  men  out  of  the 
cells,  extinguished  the  lights,  floated  the  cement  casks 
and  boxes,  and  poured  forward  and  ever  forward,  filling 
the  tunnel  with  the  roaring  of  the  flood. 

The  Thames  had  broken  in  with  a  vengeance  this 
time,  and  drowned  the  tunnel. 


CHAPTER   II. 

UNDER    THE     RIVER. 

HAPPILY  no  one  lost  his  life. 
The    men    retreated    before   the   advancing 
wave,   and    as   they   went   they   met    Brunei. 
But  the  great  engineer  could  do  nothing  just 
then,  except,  like   them,  to   retreat.     The   lights  yet 
remaining    flashed   on   the   roaring    water,   and    then 
suddenly  went  out  in  darkness. 

The  foot  of  the  staircase  was  reached,  and  it  was 
found  thronged  with  the  retreating  workers.  Higher 
and  higher  grew  the  surging  flood  ;  Brunei  ordered 
great  speed  ;  and  scarcely  were  the  men's  feet  off  the 
lower  stair  when  it  was  torn  away. 

On  gaining  the  top,  cries  were  heard  ;  some  calling 
for  a  rope,  others  for  a  boat.  Some  one  was  below  in 
the  water  !  Brunei  himself  slipped  down  an  iron  rod, 
another  followed,  and  each  fastening  a  rope  to  the 
body  of  a  man  they  found  in  the  flood,  he  was  soon 


142  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

drawn  out  of  danger.  On  calling  the  roll,  every 
worker  answered  to  his  name.  No  life  was  lost. 

So  far,  good ;  but  what  was  to  be  done  now  ?  The 
tunnel  was  full  of  water.  To  pump  it  dry  was  impos- 
sible, for  the  tide  poured  in  from  the  Thames. 

Again  the  diving-bell  was  used,  and  the  hole  was 
found  in  the  bed  of  the  river.  To  stop  it  bags  of  clay, 
with  hazel  sticks,  were  employed  ;  and  so  difficult  was 
the  task  that  three  thousand  bags  were  utilised  in  the 
process,  and  more  than  a  month  elapsed  before  the 
water  was  subdued.  Two  months  more  passed  before 
the  earth  washed  in  was  removed,  and  Brunei  could 
examine  the  work. 

He  found  it  for  the  most  part  quite  sound,  though 
near  the  shield  it  had  been  shorn  of  half  its  thick- 
ness of  bricks.  The  chain  of  the  shield  was  snapped  in 
twain,  and  irons  belonging  to  the  same  apparatus  had 
been  forced  into  the  earth. 

The  men  now  proceeded  with  their  task,  and  exhi- 
bited a  cool  courage  deserving  of  all  praise.  Earth  and 
water  frequently  fell ;  foul  gases  pervaded  the  stifling 
air,  and  sometimes  exploded,  or  catching  fire,  they 
would  now  and  again  dance  over  the  water ;  and  again 
and  again  labourers  would  be  carried  away  insensible 
from  the  poisonous  atmosphere.  Complaints,  such  as 
skin  eruptions,  sickness,  and  headaches,  were  common. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  every  difficulty,  the  men  worked  on  in 
that  damp  and  dripping  and  foetid  mine,  haunted  ever 
with  the  dread  of  another  flood. 

And  it  came.  On  the  12th  of  August,  1828,  some 
fifteen  months  after  the  previous  disaster,  the  ground 
bulged  out,  a  large  quantity  fell,  and  a  violent  rush  of 
water  followed;  one  man  being  washed  out  of  his  cell 
to  the  wooden  staging  behind. 

The  flow  was  so  great  that  Brunei  ordered  all  to 
retire.  The  water  rose  so  fast  that  when  they  had 
retreated  a  few  feet  it  was  up  to  their  waists,  and 
finally  Brunei  had  to  swim  to  the  stairs,  and  the  rush 
of  water  carried  him  up  the  shaft.  Unhappily,  about 


143 


UNDER   THE    RIVER.  145 

half-a-dozen  lives  were  lost  at  this  catastrophe,  and 
those  who  were  rescued — about  a  dozen  in  number — 
were  extricated  in  an  exhausted  or  fainting  state.  The 
roar  of  the  water  in  the  shaft  made  a  deafening  noise  ; 
the  news  soon  spread,  and  the  scene  became  very 
distressing  as  the  relatives  of  the  men  arrived. 

Once  more  the  hole  in  the  bed  of  the  Thames  had  to 
be  stopped.  Down  went  the  diving-bell,  but  it  had  to 
descend  twice  before  the  gap  was  discovered.  It  was  a 
hole  some  seven  feet  long,  and  four  thousand  tons  of  earth, 
chiefly  bags  of  clay,  were  used  in  filling  it.  Again  the 
tunnel  was  entered,  and  again  the  intrepid  engineer 
found  the  work  sound. 

But,  alas,  another  difficulty  had  presented  itself — one 
more  difficult  to  conquer  even  than  stopping  up  huge 
holes  in  the  bed  of  the  Thames.  The  tunnel  was  being 
cut  by  a  Company,  and  its  money  had  gone  ;  nay,  more, 
its  confidence  had  well  nigh  gone  also.  Work  could 
not  proceed  without  money,  and  for  seven  years  silence 
and  desolation  reigned  in  those  unfinished  halls  beneath 
the  river. 

Then  the  Government  agreed  to  advance  money, 
and  work  was  again  commenced.  But  it  proceeded 
very  slowly,  some  weeks  less  than  a  foot  being  cut, 
during  others  again  three  feet  nine  inches.  The  ground 
was  in  fact  a  fluid  mud,  and  the  bed  of  the  river  had 
to  be  artificially  formed  before  the  excavation  could 
proceed  in  comparative  safety.  Further,  the  tunnel 
was  far  deeper  than  any  other  work  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, and  all  the  water  drained  there — a  difficulty 
which  was  obviated  by  the  construction  of  a  shaft  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river. 

The  shield  had  also  to  be  replaced.  It  had  been  so 
battered  about  by  the  flood  that  another  was  necessary. 
As  it  kept  up  the  earth  above,  and  also  in  front,  the 
change  was  both  arduous  and  perilous.  But  it  was 
accomplished  without  loss  of  life. 

Three  more  irruptions  of  water  occurred :  the  third 
in  August,  1837,  the  fourth  in  November,  1837,  and 

K 


146  ENGINEERS   AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

the  fifth  in  March,  1838.  But  the  engineer  was  more 
prepared  for  Father  Thames'  unpleasant  visits,  and 
a  platform  had  been  constructed  by  which  the  men 
could  escape.  Unhappily,  one  life  was  lost,  however, 
on  the  fourth  occasion.  A  great  rush  of  soil  also 
occurred  in  April,  1840,  accompanied  by  a  sinking  of 
the  shore  at  Wapping  over  some  seven  hundred  feet 
of  surface.  Happily  this  occurred  at  low  tide,  and  the 
chasm  was  filled  with  gravel  and  bags  of  clay  before 
the  river  rose  high. 

At  length,  on  the  13th  of  August,  1841,  Brunei 
descended  the  shaft  at  Wapping,  and  entering  a  small 
cutting,  passed  through  the  shield  in  the  tunnel, 
amidst  the  cheers  of  the  workmen.  After  all  these 
years  of  arduous  toil,  of  anxious  solicitude,  and  of  hair- 
breadth escapes,  the  end  was  near,  and  a  passage  under 
the  Thames  was  cut.  It  was  not  completed  and  open 
to  the  public,  however,  until  the  25th  of  March,  1843, 
and  then  for  foot-passengers  only. 

The  approaches  for  carriages  remained  to  be  con- 
structed, and  would  have  been  expensive  works.  They 
were  to  be  immense  circular  roads,  but  they  were  never 
made.  Perhaps  that  deficiency  contributed  to  the 
commercial  failure  of  the  great  engineering  enterprise. 
In  any  case,  the  tunnel  never  paid  ;  the  Company  dis- 
solved ;  and  the  tunnel  passed  over  to  the  East  London 
Railway,  who  run  trains  through  it.  Its  length  is  1300 
feet,  while  between  it  and  the  river  there  is  a  thickness 
of  soil  of  some  fifteen  feet. 

Though  a  failure  as  a  business,  yet  the  tunnel  was 
a  great  engineering  triumph.  It  was  a  marvel  of  per- 
severance, and  of  determined,  arduous,  skilful  toil 
against  overwhelming  difficulties.  Eighteen  years 
passed  before  it  was  completed ;  and  if  the  seven  be 
deducted  during  which  the  work  was  stopped,  still  eleven 
remain  as  the  period  of  its  construction.  Work  occupy- 
ing such  a  length  of  time  must  be  costly.  Could  it  be 
shortened  ?  Would  tunnel-making  machinery  be  devel- 
oped and  improved  so  as  to  expedite  the  labour  of  years  ? 


THROUGH    THE    ALPS.  147 

CHAPTER  III. 

THROUGH  THE   ALPS. 

through  the  Alps?     It  is  an  impossibility; 
and  it  would  never  pay ! " 

"  Yet  they  are  about  to  do  it.     Sommeiller, 
an  engineer,  has  invented,  or  obtained,  a  rock- 
boring  machine  which  promises  to  lighten  the  labour 
considerably;    and   then,  of  course,  they  will   shatter 
great  quantities  of  earth  by  explosives." 

"  And  what  part  of  the  Alps  ? " 

"Through  Mont  Cenis.  The  tunnel  will  be  about 
7J  miles  long,  and  the  mountain  over  it  will  rise  5400 
feet  at  one  point." 

"  And  when  do  they  expect  to  finish  it  ? " 

"  I  cannot  say.  They  will  begin  on  the  southern — 
that  is,  the  Italian — side  first,  and  later  on  the  French 
side.  Through  the  tunnel  will  pass  one  of  the  principal 
routes  from  the  West  to  the  East," 

This  conversation,  we  may  suppose,  took  place  in 
1857,  the  year  when  the  tunnel  was  commenced.  For 
four  years  hand  work  was  used,  though  blasting  was  in 
operation  from  the  first ;  but  in  1861  drilling  by  machin- 
ery was  brought  into  play,  and  the  rate  of  progress 
became  much  greater. 

The  machine  was  the  first  practical  boring  apparatus 
for  rock,  and  was  used  first  in  making  the  Mont  Cenis 
Tunnel.  With  explosives,  as  gun-cotton,  dynamite,  etc., 
the  time  occupied  in  cutting  tunnels  has  been  much 
reduced.  Thus  the  Mont  Cenis  Tunnel  occupied  about 
thirteen  years,  and  cost  three  millions  of  pounds.  The 
St.  Gotthard — another  Alpine  subway — occupied  eight 
years,  though  it  is  9|  miles  in  length ;  and  the  Arlberg 
— yet  another  Alpine  tunnel — a  little  over  6  miles  long, 
occupied  something  more  than  three  years. 

Further,  the  railway  of  which  the  St.  Gotthard  Tunnel 
forms  part,  has  been  commercially  very  successful. 


148  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

This  tunnel  was  commenced  in  1872  and  completed  in 
1880,  the  same  year  that  saw  the  beginning  of  the 
Arlberg. 

Tunnels  through  hard  rock  do  not  always  need  a 
lining  of  brickwork ;  but  if  the  soil  be  clay,  or  loose 
earth  of  any  kind,  the  lining  of  brick  or  stone  must  be 
brought  up  close  to  the  scene  of  actual  excavation. 
The  Mont  Cenis  is  lined  with  stone  or  brick  almost 
entirely,  about  900  feet,  however,  being  without  such 
lining. 

And  now,  how  wras  the  actual  work  of  tunnelling 
carried  on  ?  It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  the  problem 
was  quite  different  from  that  of  boring  fifteen  feet 
under  the  Thames,  and  sometimes  through  watery  mud. 
In  boring  through  mountains  the  quickest  way  of  cut- 
ting and  carting  away  rock  is  one  of  the  chief  points  to 
be  considered.  At  the  Mont  Cenis  Tunnel  the  blasting 
took  place  by  driving  a  series  of  shot  holes  into  the 
soil,  all  over  the  surface  to  be  cut,  filling  them  with 
explosives,  and  firing  them  simultaneously  in  rings. 
Such  explosives  may  be  fired  by  a  time-fuse  or  by  elec- 
tricity, giving  the  workmen  ample  time  to  escape  out 
of  reach.  The  shaken  and  shattered  soil  can  then  be 
cleared  away. 

The  blast  holes  in  this  small-shot  system  are  about 
1  to  1J  inch  in  diameter,  and  from  1J  to  7  or  9  feet  in 
the  rock.  The  explosive  is  forced  to  the  end  of  each, 
and  the  hole  is  then  tamped — that  is,  closed  with  clay 
or  sand — and  fired  in  due  time. 

The  cutters  for  boring  in  rock  are  often  diamond 
drills,  the  cutting  edges  being  furnished  with  a  kind 
of  diamond  found  in  Brazil,  of  a  black  colour  and  of 
great  hardness.  These  are  placed  round  the  edge  of  a 
cylinder  of  steel,  to  which  iron  pipes  can  be  screwed  as 
the  edge  cuts  its  way  deeper  in  the  rock.  The  stuff 
cut  out  as  the  drill  revolves  finds  its  way  through  the 
cylinder  and  the  piping.  There  are,  however,  a  great 
number  of  boring  machines  of  different  kinds,  hard 
steel  sometimes  taking  the  place  of  the  opaque  dia- 


149 


THROUGH    THE    ALPS.  151 

monds  for  cutting  purposes.  The  compressed  air  with 
which  many  of  the  machines  are  worked  assisted  in  the 
St.  Gotthard  in  the  ventilation  of  the  tunnel,  frequently 
a  great  consideration,  as  the  space  is  so  small  and  the 
gas  from  explosions  often  so  great. 

The  Mont  Cenis  Tunnel  marks  a  transition  period  in 
tunnelling.  During  the  four  years  that  hand  labour 
was  used,  the  average  rate  of  progress  was  but  nine 
inches  a-day  on  either  side ;  but  when  the  rock-drills 
worked  by  compressed  air  were  introduced,  the  speed 
was  five  times  as  great.  Still  further,  at  the  Arlberg 
Tunnel  through  the  Tyrolese  Alps  the  average  rate 
of  progress  was  9 '07  yards  per  day,  and  the  cost  £108 
per  lineal  yard ;  while  the  cost  of  the  Mont  Cenis  was 
£226  per  lineal  yard.  These  figures  show  immense 
progress  in  economy  and  in  speed. 

The  St.  Gotthard  Tunnel  was  begun  in  1872,  and  the 
machine  drills  were  used  throughout.  A  heading  was 
first  cut  about  eight  feet  square,  and  the  hollow  thus 
gained  was  afterwards  enlarged  and  finally  sunk  to  the 
desired  level.  Several  Ferroux  drills  were  used,  placed 
on  a  carriage,  and  an  average  charge  of  If  Ibs.  of  dyna- 
mite placed  in  the  holes  made.  After  firing,  the  com- 
pressed air  was  discharged  and  the  shattered  soil  was 
cleared  away. 

In  the  Arlberg  Tunnel  a  chief  heading  was  driven, 
and  then  shafts  opened  up  enabling  smaller  headings 
to  be  driven  on  both  hands.  Drills  worked  by  hydraulic 
power  were  used,  as  well  as  drills  worked  by  air,  and, 
after  the  explosions,  water  spray  was  thrown  out  to 
assist  in  clearing  and  purifying  the  air.  Ventilators 
also  were  used,  which  injected  air  at  the  rate  of  more 
than  8000  cubic  feet  per  minute.  Speedy  transit  of 
the  earth  excavated  and  the  materials  for  masonry  were 
also  effected,  it  being  estimated  that  some  900  tons 
of  earth  had  to  be  taken  out  of  each  end,  and  about 
350  tons  of  masonry  had  to  be  brought  in,  every  day. 

Tunnels  through  huge  thicknesses  of  rock  or  under 
rivers  can  only  be  cut  from  the  two  opposite  ends. 


152  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR   TRIUMPHS. 

Where  possible,  however,  other  shafts  have  been  sunk 
along  the  line  the  subway  was  to  take,  and  thus  excava- 
tion might  continue  at  several  places  along  the  line 
of  route,  the  shafts  being  used  for  ventilation  and  for 
the  conveyance  of  the  excavated  soil. 

But  the  use  of  machine  drills  and  of  blasting  explo- 
sives, with  improved  appliances  for  ventilation,  have, 
with  possibly  some  rare  exceptions,  rendered  these 
methods  obsolete.  According  to  Pliny  the  tunnel  for 
draining  Lake  Fucino  was  the  greatest  work  of  his  day. 
It  was  over  3J  miles  long,  and  cut  under  Monte  Sal- 
viano.  Forty  shafts  were  sunk  in  cutting  it,  also  slop- 
ing galleries,  and  huge  copper  buckets  were  used  to 
carry  away  the  earth.  It  is  stated  that  this  tunnel — 
some  ten  feet  high,  by  six  wide — occupied  30,000  men 
eleven  years.  Compare  this  with  the  Arlberg,  or  even 
the  Gotthard,  double  and  treble  the  length,  occupying 
much  less  time.  Sir  Benjamin  Baker  has  calculated 
that  the  Fucino  tunnel  could  now  be  cut  in  eleven 
months. 

Gunpowder  gave  some  advance  on  old  Roman  methods 
of  tunnelling.  The  improved  explosives  and  rock  drills 
have  gone  further. 

Even  as  the  Mont  Cenis  shows  a  transition  period,  so 
the  Arlberg  may  be  said  to  emphasise  a  triumph  of  the 
methods  then  indicated.  So  great  have  been  the  im- 
provements of  the  rock  boring  machinery,  of  the  power 
of  the  blasts,  and  the  speedy  ventilation  following  the 
explosions,  and  of  the  quick  transit  of  materials,  that 
we  shall  most  likely  hear  no  more  of  sinking  numerous 
shafts  along  the  route. 

But  what  of  subaqueous  tunnels  ?  Violent  explosives 
are  hardly  suitable  for  excavation  a  few  feet  under  a 
turbid  river.  What  is  to  be  done,  when  cutting  under 
a  full  and  treacherous  stream  ? 


UNDER    WATER   AGAIN.  153 

CHAPTER  IV. 

UNDER  WATER   AGAIN. 

"  T  TOW  to  cross  the  Thames  at  Blackwall,  far  east 

I— I       of  the  Tower  Bridge  ? "     That  was  a  problem 

^  JL  which  the  citizens  of  London  had  to  face  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

An  immense  population  dwelt  on  either  side,  and 
some  means  of  easy  communication  became  a  pressing 
necessity.  Should  it  be  effected  by  means  of  a  bridge, 
fixed  or  floating,  or  by  means  of  a  tunnel  ? 

Finally  a  tunnel  was  decided  upon,  with  sloping 
approaches  on  either  side.  Its  entire  length  was  to  be 
6200  feet  including  the  approaches ;  but  herein  lay  the 
danger  and  the  difficulty — it  was  to  be  driven  only  seven 
feet  below  the  bed  of  the  river,  and  through  loose  soil 
and  gravel. 

How  then  was  this  perilous  task  to  be  accomplished  ? 
If  the  great  river  burst  through  Brunei's  fifteen  feet, 
would  it  not  be  much  more  likely  to  rush  through  this 
seven  feet  of  loose  soil  ? 

But  the  engineers  in  charge  had  an  appliance  in 
hand,  which  was  unknown  to  Brunei — viz.,  a  com- 
pressed air  chamber,  a  piece  of  apparatus  which  has 
facilitated  several  great  engineering  achievements, 
besides  the  Blackwall  Tunnel. 

When  the  excavation  of  the  tunnel  was  commenced, 
a  stout  apartment  was  formed  at  the  end  of  the 
cutting,  into  which  air  was  pumped  until  it  exerted 
a  pressure  of  some  thirty-five  pounds  to  a  square  inch, 
in  addition  to  its  usual  weight. 

This  is  generally  reckoned  at  an  average  of  147 
pounds  to  a  square  inch.  We  are  so  used  to  this  pres- 
sure that  we  do  not  feel  it ;  but  let  us  enter  a  room 
where  the  air  has  been  much  more  compressed,  as  in 
this  air-chamber,  and  serious  consequences  would  be 
likely  to  ensue,  especially  at  first. 


154  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

The  human  body,  however,  has  a  wonderful  power  of 
adaptability,  and  after  a  time  some  men  get  used  to  the 
change  and  can  work  in  the  compressed  air  without 
injury.  But  at  first  it  may  cause  bleeding  from  the 
nose  and  ears,  sometimes  indeed  affecting  the  hearing 
more  or  less  seriously,  and  also  causing  great  pain. 

The  reason  for  using  this  compressed  air  chamber 
was  to  keep  out  Father  Thames.  The  great  pressure 
of  the  air  resisted  the  great  pressure  of  the  water,  and 
held  up  the  seven  feet  of  soil  between. 

Powerful  engines  were  maintained  at  work  to  provide 
for  the  pressure  of  the  air,  and  the  chamber  in  which 
the  compressed  air  was  kept  was  entered  and  left  by 
the  workmen  through  an  "  air  lock  " — that  is,  a  small 
ante-chamber  having  two  doors,  one  leading  to  the 
compressed  air  and  the  other  to  the  ordinary  atmos- 
phere, and  neither  being  opened  at  the  same  time. 

The  men,  then,  worked  in  this  compressed  air  cham- 
ber, which  prevented  irruptions  of  the  river.  But  the 
method  of  excavation  was  also  another  safeguard,  both 
against  irruptions  of  water  and  of  earth. 

In  essence,  it  was  much  the  same  as  that  pursued  in 
boring  the  tunnel  for  the  South  London  Electric  Railway; 
that,  however,  was  through  thick  clay  and  about  10| 
feet  in  diameter,  and  this  was  27  feet  across,  and  through 
loose  and  stony  stuff.  The  shield,  instead  of  containing 
as  in  Brunei's  time  a  number  of  cells,  consisted  of  an 
immense  iron  cylinder,  weighing  some  250  tons ;  closed 
in  front,  but  having  a  door  in  the  closed  part ;  the  rim 
of  the  cylinder  round  this  part  having  a  sharp  edge  for 
cutting  into  the  soil. 

The  door  being  opened,  the  men  found  themselves 
face  to  face  with  the  earth  to  be  excavated.  They  cut 
away  as  well  as  they  could,  perhaps  about  2J  feet  deep, 
throwing  the  earth  into  trucks  in  the  compressed  air 
chamber ;  these  trucks  would  be  afterwards  hauled  away 
through  the  air-lock  by  electricity,  and  the  huge  iron 
cylinder  would  be  pushed  forward  by  means  of  hydraulic 
power.  Twenty-eight  hydraulic  "jacks"  were  em- 


155 


UNDER   WATER    AGAIN.  157 

ployed,  and  they  forced  forward  the  250  ton  cylinder 
with  its  cutting  edge,  when  the  men  would  resume 
working  through  the  door  as  before. 

Behind  them,  the  hole  of  the  tunnel  thus  cut  out  was 
being  lined.  First,  it  was  built  round  with  iron  plates 
a  couple  of  inches  thick.  This  plating  was  fixed  in  seg- 
ments, and  formed  a  huge  pipe  a  little  smaller  than  the 
actual  hollow  in  the  earth.  Through  holes  in  the 
immense  piping,  liquid  cement  was  forced,  thus 
plugging  up  the  space  entirely  between  the  earth  and 
the  iron,  and  forming  an  outer  ring  of  cement. 

Within,  the  tunnel  was  completed  by  a  facing  of 
glazed  tiles,  placed  on  a  thickness  of  14  inches  of 
concrete.  A  road-way  was  laid  16  feet  wide,  flanked  by 
foot-paths  of  3  feet,  2  inches,  on  either  side.  The  sub- 
way is  lighted  by  electricity,  and  staircases  on  the 
banks  lead  down  to  it  for  foot  passengers.  The  stair- 
ways give  entrance  to  the  tunnel  not  far  from  the  river, 
and  much  nearer  than  the  commencement  of  the 
carriage-way  approaches. 

At  the  northern  side,  the  slope  down  commences 
near  the  East  India  Dock  entrance,  and  turns  out  of 
the  East  India  Dock  Road.  The  slope  is  fairly  gradual 
— about  one  in  thirty-four — and  it  passes  under  the 
Blackwall  line  of  the  Great  Eastern  Railway,  and  near 
to  Poplar  Station.  The  part  of  the  tunnel  near  to  this 
point — that  is  the  part  between  the  river  and  the  open 
slope — was  executed  by  what  is  called  "cut  and  cover" 
work — that  is,  a  huge  trench  was  dug,  then  arched  in 
and  covered  over. 

"  Cut  and  cover "  work  also  took  place  on  the  south 
side ;  and  there,  at  the  foot  of  an  immense  excavation 
ninety  feet  down,  and  with  its  sides  held  up  by  huge 
timbers,  might  have  been  seen  a  river  of  water  which 
had  drained  in  and  was  being  pumped  up  quickly  by 
powerful  machinery. 

Not  far  distant,  the  shaft  was  being  sunk  for  the 
staircase.  In  principle,  the  sinking  of  the  shaft  was 
conducted  much  as  Brunei's  shaft  at  the  Thames 


158  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

Tunnel,  only  it  was  built  up  of  iron  instead  of  brick. 
Imagine  a  big  gasometer  with  a  scaffold  near  the  top, 
where  men  are  busy  building  the  walls  higher  and 
higher  by  adding  on  plate  after  plate  of  iron.  On  reach- 
ing the  scaffold  you  find  that  there  are  two  great  cylinders 
of  iron,  one  standing  inside  the  other,  and  concrete  is 
being  filled  in  between  them.  Men  also  are  down 
below  digging  out  the  earth  which  is  being  swung  up  in 
iron  buckets ;  and  as  the  soil  is  gradually  removed,  the 
immense  double  iron  and  concrete  cylinder  slowly  sinks 
by  its  own  weight, 

In  this  manner,  the  great  shaft  was  sunk  nearly 
ninety  feet,  and  within  it  the  staircase  has  been  built, 
giving  entrance  for  foot  passengers,  not  far  from  the 
river.  Thus,  on  either  side  are  sloping  entrances  to 
the  tunnel,  and  also,  nearer  the  water,  stairways  of 
descent  down  great  shafts. 

Engineers  have  also  found  their  way  beneath  other 
great  English  rivers — the  Severn  and  the  Mersey. 
Much  water  had  to  be  dealt  with  in  the  cutting  of  the 
Severn  Tunnel.  This  important  work,  four  and  one- 
third  miles  long,  was  driven  in  some  places  forty-five 
feet  under  sandstone,  and  at  the  Salmon  Pool — a 
hollow  in  the  river  bed — the  tunnel  was  thirty  feet 
under  soil  called  trias  marl.  Much  greater  space, 
therefore,  exists  here  between  the  tunnel  and  river 
than  at  Black  wall.  But  the  river  burst  through.  The 
work  was  begun  in  1873,  and  completed  in  1886. 

Six  years  after  its  commencement  the  tunnel  was 
drowned,  so  to  speak,  for  a  long  time  by  a  large  spring 
of  water  which  burst  out  from  limestone,  and  arrange- 
ments had  to  be  made  to  provide  for  this  flood.  It  is 
now  conducted  by  a  subsidiary  tunnel  or  channel  to  a 
huge  shaft,  where  it  is  raised  by  pumps  of  sufficient 
strength.  Then  there  was  the  perilous  Salmon  Pool  to 
be  dealt  with.  The  river  burst  through  here,  and  the 
rent  had  to  be  stopped  with  clay.  The  tunnel  is 
twenty-six  feet  wide  by  twenty  feet  high,  and  is  cut 
through  Pennant  stone,  shale,  and  marl.  It  is  lined 


UNDER    WATER    AGAIN. 


159 


with  Staffordshire  vitrified  bricks  throughout — seventy- 
five  million  bricks  it  is  estimated  being  used.  The 
works  are  ventilated  by  a  huge  fan,  and  pumping 
continually  proceeds,  something  like  twenty-six  million 
gallons  of  water,  it  is  said,  being  raised  in  the  twenty- 
four  hours.  The  tunnel,  of  which  the  engineers  were 
Messrs.  Hawkshaw,  Son,  Hayter  &  Richardson,  and 
Mr.  T.  A.  Walker,  Contractor,  is  for  the  use  of  the 
Great  Western  Railway,  and  saves  that  Company's 
Welsh  and  Irish  trains  to  Milford  a  long  way  round  by 
Gloucester. 

In  cutting  the  Mersey  Tunnel,  which  was  completed 
in  1886,  machinery  was  used  for  some  of  the  work. 
The  machine  bored  partly  to  a  diameter  of  seven  feet 


THE   BORING   MACHINE   USED   IN   THE   PRELIMINARY   CONSTRUCTION 
OF  THE  ENGLISH   CHANNEL   TUNNEL. 

four  inches,  but  hand  labour  had  to  be  largely  depended 
upon.  The  plan  pursued  was  to  sink  a  shaft  on  either 
side  of  the  river  and  drive  a  heading,  sloping  upward 
through  the  sandstone  to  the  centre ;  this  heading 
acting  as  a  drain  for  any  water  which  might  appear. 
The  thickness  between  the  arch  of  the  tunnel  and  the 
river  bed  is  thirty  feet  at  its  least,  and  the  tunnel, 
which  occupied  about  six  years  in  construction,  and  of 
which  the  engineers  were  Messrs.  Brunlees  &  Fox,  is 
provided  with  pumps  raising  some  thirteen  million 
gallons  of  water  daily.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Severn 
Tunnel,  ventilation  is  provided  for  by  huge  fans. 

A  boring  machine  was  also  used  in  the  preliminary 
efforts   for   the    construction    of    a   tunnel   under   the 


160  ENGINEERS    AND    THEIR    TRIUMPHS. 

English  Channel.  Holes,  seven  feet  across  arid  to  the 
length  of  2000  yards,  have  been  bored  by  a  compressed 
air  machine,  working  with  two  arms  furnished  with 
teeth  of  steel.  The  construction  of  the  tunnel  is  held 
to  be  quite  feasible  from  an  engineering  point  of  view, 
and  it  is  believed  that  it  would  pass  through  strata 
impervious  to  water,  such  as  chalk  marl  and  grey 
chalk. 

Still,  the  huge  tunnel  at  Black  wall,  which  was 
carried  out  by  Mr.  Binnie,  Chief  Engineer  of  the 
London  County  Council,  with  Mr.  Greathead  and 
Sir  Benjamin  Baker  as  Consulting  Engineers,  is  pro- 
bably one  of  the  most  daring  and  stupendous  enterprises 
of  the  kind  ever  undertaken.  To  hollow  out  a  subway 
hundreds  of  feet  long  under  the  Thames,  only  seven 
feet  from  the  bed  of  the  great  river,  and  through  loose 
gravelly  soil,  was  a  great  triumph.  It  was  achieved  not 
by  uncalculating  bravery,  but  by  a  wise  combination  of 
cool  courage,  superb  skill,  and  admirable  foresight. 

To  design  effectively,  to  provide  for  contingencies, 
to  be  daunted  by  no  difficulties — these  qualities  help 
to  produce  the  Triumphs  of  Engineers,  as  well  as  do 
great  inventive  skill,  the  power  of  adapting  principles 
to  varying  circumstances,  and  high-spirited  enterprise 
in  planning  and  conducting  noble  and  useful  works. 
These  works  may  well  rank  among  the  great  achieve- 
ments of  man's  effort  and  the  wonders  of  the  world. 


THE   END. 


LORIMER    AND    GILLIES,  PRINTERS,  EDINBURGH. 


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